Illegal guns will always be a problem, but a simple syatem could be used to keep track of all legal guns.

1. Close the gun show loophole and have proper background checks on every purchaser, with a waiting period of say 48 hours, during which the gun can be registered and test fired.

2. With a database containing the ballistic signature of every licensed gun, at least the innocent could be eliminated from enquiries, and with backgrounds checked before the gun is released, obvious nutjobs could be weeded out.

This would significantly reduce both the work of detection and the capture of anyone who kills with a legal gun.

3. Compulsory gunsafe for all licensed weapons, making it more difficult for them to be stolen.

Of all of these, I think the ballistics record the most useful.

Don T.