One could pass a rule requiring that an individuals who sells a firearm to another individual should keep a copy of the credential used to verify the sale against a list of people who had been convicted of felonies, and if within the next ten years they are presented with the physical firearm itself they must tender a copy of such credential to the government. If the government has physical possession of the weapon, such a request would not facilitate its confiscation (since the government already has it!). A variety of means could be used to ensure that maintenance of a reliable and unalterable archive of the version of the list that existed on any date. If the buyer wasn't on the forbidden list, then the government shouldn't care whether the background check was done. If the buyer was on the forbidden list, that would suggest it wasn't done.
>>One could pass a rule requiring that
One could. But the government will not. This is not about preventing “tragedies” or keeping people safe. This government knows that the economy is just about done and the entitlement checks are going to stop soon unless it “fundamentally changes” the way we do business in America. When that happens and the overwhelming majority of people find that their new standard of living based on what some government bureaucrat/commissar decides you “need” is not very good, the people will rise up. It will just be shouting and brick throwing at first, but eventually the shooting will begin.
This government (not Obama’s government, but the government of the Two Party System as it is currently formed) needs to defang the 330 Million angry Americans before that day arrives. Universal background checks are the only means that they have at this time. They will not use your non-intrusive plan. They can’t afford to let this crisis go to waste.