Did you read the article? The gun was NOT registered
According to the article the gun wasn't "re-registered". He didn't renew his NYC long gun permit. If he didn't register it in a first place, he would still have his gun. Once you register it, they will breath down your neck for the rest of your natural life and take it away at the first slip up. After you leave this world they will harass your wife, who is too old to handle the sale of it by the book and will in many cases just surrender the firearms to the local precinct.