Legislative requirement for a system of firearm registration designed to keep ongoing records of the majority of lawfully held guns.

A jurisdiction with universal firearm registration requires each licensed gun owner and arms dealer to register every sale, purchase or other transfer of a firearm in a register accessible to authorities.

Records can be held in a centralised gun registry, jurisdictional record-keeping systems, or in transfer registers kept by licensed gun dealers.

Jurisdictions in which only a minority of firearms are required to be registered (the United States, New Zealand) are classified as non-universal.

Although the terms 'registration' and 'licensing' are sometimes used interchangeably, registration properly refers to keeping a record of the object as it moves between owners (registered firearm, registered vehicle), while a parallel system of licensing determines the qualification of the person (licensed gun owner, driver, pilot).