Humbersloop, I like old guns, both hand and long... I've a collection of maybe 25 to 30 depending on the latest auctions... including 9 digit serial number Winchester Model 94 30-30 carbine (I'm sure you're properly impressed).
In the case previously described where the two long guns were sent from the auction house, the provenance becomes the responsibility of the auction house who identifies them by serial number, but that data is not collected by the Federal government... thankfully! The real responsibility is the background check and any number of things can be disqualifying. Obviously, a criminal record, but also any record of mental illness. Which is indicative in itself of being impotent since the last several "massacres" involving use of firearms have ALL been the efforts of mentally disturbed individuals. One of the most infamous is the Newtown school shootings. The young man had been treated for severe depression for a number of years. He tried to buy a weapon but was disqualified, whereupon he went to his mother's house, shot and killed her and stole several weapons she had, (legally) and proceeded to murder the kids and teachers at the school.
More importantly, just in the last two weeks, two teen-agers at school were killed and several more were wounded as well as some teachers, by a mentally disturbed teen-ager wielding a knife... If just one individual at that school had been an armed conceal carry permit holder, it could have been stopped.
Several States have in acted laws recently to allow (with proper supervision and qualification) selected teachers to carry weapons at school (or at least have them available).
I'm a commercial pilot and I, along with many of my colleagues across the spectrum of air carriers have qualified for and been granted permission to carry handguns while on duty on the flight deck. The weapons are actually provided by the airline and the tracking process is so complete that, to date, there's not been one weapon lost or misplaced.
Look, in a perfect world, there would be no need for any of this, but it's truly a dangerous place out there and no one but oneself to depend upon for defense not only for myself but my family and others for whom I'm the first line of defense...