The Canadian government attempted to build a gun registry, originally predicting it to cost $12M, then $85M, then $1000M, then $2000M, and then it was scrapped. While it's easy to blame vendors like IBM, I have to imagine feature-creep and "what about"-isms lead to such monstrosities.
quick correction, Canada still has a gun registry for handguns. In one of the several elections that they won, the Harper Conservatives campaigned on removing the long gun registry (rifles and shotguns). Which they successfully did, putting hundreds of federal employees out of work in a small town part of New Brunswick. The political outcry from these unemployed people and the economic impact sent them on a new trip back to the pork barrel, centralizing all of the Phoenix payroll system clerical operations in... you guessed it... the same small town part of New Brunswick.
There are quite a lot, actually, though canada has a greater proportion of traditional type long guns like bird hunting shotguns, bolt action rifles, etc. Less people who want to buy a consumer-legal version of a HK416.
