As it stands now, I believe a law enforcement officer can discern if you have a FOID card in the US, which may set the expectation that you are armed to the teeth, while a purchase database might show that you purchased a non-functional collector piece. I'd think that information would improve their situational awareness and make their approach more context-appropriate.
I.e. more likely to shoot you? Many people have irrational responses to knowing that someone has a gun, police officers included.
>Nor did I say anything about a cop taking anyone's guns.
I assumed you were referring to the number of recent proposals to allow for the "temporary confiscation" of guns from people accused (but not convicted) of domestic violence.
>I'd think that information would improve their situational awareness and make their approach more context-appropriate.
Why would you think that? What would be more context-appropriate?
If it's currently possible to get a SWAT team to show up and break into someone's house with an anonymous phone call, I sure as hell don't want to give police the idea that it's OK to show up and take someone's guns because they got an anonymous phone call accusing them of hitting their wife.
> I'd further like to be able to query that database as a civilian
You need to consider for a moment how this can be abused. Who do you think is going to be targeted for robbery? You'd be efficiently putting guns directly into the hands of criminals.
How about you stop worrying about the statistically negligible threat that your gun-collecting neighbor is secretly about to go berserk? We don't need to spy on each other all the time.