After All, They Register Cars, Don't They?

Yes, they do.  And I just got this in my mailbox:

[Click to enlarge]

I sold the Mustang about a year ago.  And in Ohio, you don't just have to satisfy one set of bureaucrats to transfer a title, you need to go through three: the Ohio EPA "e-check" for proof of emissions compliance before transfer, and where I live the buyer needs to go through two separate BMV offices -- one to process title transfers and the other to issue new license plates.

So why, after all that, do they not know I no longer own this car? What if I'd bought and later sold a gun jumping through all the mandated hoops? Or reported it stolen, as some would require?

I shudder to think what could happen if it were used in a crime. If a situation similar to this vehicle cluster**** happened, I doubt I'd have gotten notice by mail, but could have instead been "visited" by men with the prime directive to make it home at the end of their shift. This shows it's hardly that far-fetched to suppose obeying "common sense gun safety laws" and entrusting government workers to get it right could prove far from safe.