The lost or stolen firearms bills and “gun show loophole” laws are not only an unnecessary imposition on gun owners, making it harder for people to be a law abiding gun owner. They are also a backdoor, and/or a steppingstone to gun registration. When you have such laws in place, along with the trace data for sales, the system is there to trace a legally owned firearm in a manner similar to a registration scheme. As history has shown us, confiscations are directly preceded by registration, which allows the government to find weapons that are not turned over. If that day ever comes in the U.S., some gun owners I know have said that they could claim that their weapons were stolen, and currently a claim to have sold or otherwise transfered the guns would be impossible to disprove. With a lost or stolen law, a gun owner that claims their guns were stolen could be sent to prison for not reporting that, and by closing the sale of private property “loophole,” all (or at least most) guns can then be traced to their owners, and the confiscations become possible. Another item to note is that many criminals cannot be forced to report a gun lost or stolen, as if they are a convicted felon, and not allowed to own guns, reporting it is would incriminate them of felon in possession, and forcing them to thus incriminate themselves would violate their 5th amendment rights. The law therefore only applies to law abiding gun owners. These laws need to be defeated whenever and wherever they come up.