What happens if the police are criminals, or other criminals get a hold of this list? What if the government becomes genocidal killing people for whatever reasons they deem "the law". History shows firearm registration leads to confiscation. A background check is run on every person who buys a gun from a gun dealer. In the vast majority of states this is also required for all private sales as well. This supposed "loophole" doesn't really exist as any actual gun owner in the US would know.
Meh. You seem to forget that the government = the people.
The government can't "kill everyone". The government is only merely a few hundred persons.
By the government you really mean the army. Which are citizens.
So it's not going to be the government against the people. It's going to be a part of the population against another part of the population. So civil war.
You can play semantic games all day if you like, but lets not forget about the millions of people dead in Russia, China, and Germany before and during the first world wars. Most of those people were killed by their own government/people/citizens/othermeaninglessdistinctionhere. The fact is dozens of millions of people died, and it wouldn't have been so easy if the general population was armed. This is a fact regardless of your nitpicking.
We know it's a good thing for the government to fear the people. Not too much, but at least a bit.
And you really think that a few with guns can't control another thousands also armed?
If you don't then you're not aware of the fact that people will always prefer to secure their family and don't try to help their neighbor because they know their family would be dead for sure.
You know what happened in China when population revolted against a bad arrestation? When the thousands resisted the few?
They burnt down the entire village.
You know what would happen if the USA were a dictatorship and a few men resisted an arrestation and killed the police?
They would just bombard the village with artillery.
That doesn't change anything.