I've heard that soldiers living on a military base must register all personal firearms with the appropriate authorities, is this true?

Yes.

You register it with the Provost Marshall on the base in which you live.  If you are in base housing, you keep them with you.  If you live in the barracks, they go in the arms room for the unit armorer to fondle until you use them.

At least in the Army - forgot there are other services[;)]

It's nothing new. Somewhere back at the home place we have my great-uncle's registration chit from when he took his Win '94 with him to a Navy base in Panama in about 1920.

Edited to add: It only applies to what you bring on the base. If your stuff is parked off-base somewhere, they don't care [OK, they care about the 22,000 rds of 5.56 you swiped and locked up with your AR, but otherwise not].

When I moved into base housing on the Air Force Base I went to the Security Police armory and asked if I had to let them know what firearms I had.  They said, "No", so I didn't worry about it.

Can't speak for the Army.

I guess it just depends on how much the command trusts you.

Every AF base I've ever stayed on required personal firearms to be kept in the armory at the cop shop - where they are unceremoniously stacked, leaned, dropped, fondled and so on.

My advice is to keep them off base.

I guess the policy may vary from base to base.  A single guy in the dorms would be required to keep them in the armory.  In 1990 I moved into housing on Charleston AFB and the SP desk sergeant told me I didn't have to register or check them in.  

When I would go on leave I'd check them into the armory for safe keeping.  I always removed the bolt or installed a lock.  I had heard too many stories of those guys taking personal weapons out to shoot.

One exception the that is Quantico. To bring them on post, proper, you have to tell the MPs, yada yada yada.

OTOH, if you go to the range to shoot in a match, you don't go through a gate, so there's no hassle.

Quantico is set up pretty good that way.

Firearms policy is left up to the base CO for the most part. I've lived on base where everyone that lived on base, including base housing was ordered to keep them off base or in the armory, and I've lived on base where as long gave the armory a list of firearms you owned then you could have them in housing.

You can even bring your own weapon onto a USN ship, if the CO allows it. However you do have to provide your own ammo.

Navy:
Living in base housing (either on the base properety or off base 'base housing') you register your weapons with security.

Living in the barracks (if you want to store them on base) you run a special request chit. Once approved you take your weapons to the base armory and register them INTO the armory.

Living out in the "real world": It's none of their concern.

When I lived in the barracks every base armor told me to find a friend in base housing to store my weapons there as I would have better access to them vice storing them in the armory.

At a certain Naval Air Station in the Pacific Northwest you can go to the main security office and check your concealed carry weapon with the duty desk.

Brohawk
No flame, I'm just respectfully surprised.

I actually kept mine in my (single) room, until I got caught.  The squadron commander was so stunned that he just told me to get them out of the room.  Not even a counseling letter!  I think he thought the .303 Enfield was a scary assault rifle (I guess he was partly right).  They weren't too happy about the hunting knives, either.  

I didn't like to hang around the cop shop too much because those morons were too careless with their firearms; before you stick the muzzle of your weapon into the clearing barrel you are still supposed to clear the chamber and look in it!

When I was in Germany, P.O.W.s (personally owned weapons)needed to be locked up in the unit armory if you lived in the barracks.  I have no idea how it was handled if you lived in post housing.  I imaging that if you lived out in the economy, you had to comply with the local laws.  Germany wasn't that bad at that time, things have gotten a lot tighter since, and I don't believe you can have POW's in Germany anymore, even on post.

I can sort of understand the policy actually.  Allowing individual soldiers to keep their private firearms in the barracks is a hazard the military doesn't need considering the lengths soldiers go to to get bent on the weekends.  Lets just say that the base stores sold A LOT of Robitussin along with the cheap beer and cheap Mad Dog 20/20, Boone's Farms, and Morgan David fortified wine. A lot of little scuffles would break out due to drunkenness and stupidity...add unregulated firearms into that mix and there is a potential for some real serious problems.

Since young soldiers don't really expect to be able to keep their POWs in their barracks, the restriction is not really oppressive. While our unit arms room did have a cabinet for POW's it was pretty well overloaded, and the guns were not particularly babied in routine handling. The smartest guys cased their pistols and locked those with their own padlock.  Softcases on rifles (padlocked if possible) were also a good idea to prevent handling and storage abuse.

I was surprised, too, since my previous experience was as a lad in the dorms.  I was kinda shocked when the guy basically said "We don't care what you have."

I wasn't going to say, "Are you sure?".  [;)]

AeroE, when I was stationed at NAS Point Mugu I lived (squadron) in the end barracks which was next to an open field with the base armory across the street.

We lived on the first deck, security lived on the second deck. The barracks next to ours was the geographical CPO berthing on the first deck and the restricted berthing on the second.

The security and armory guys used to keep their personal weapons in their rooms, and after getting to know them a few of use took to storing our weapons in our rooms.

I had one wall locker that was my "gun safe".

In addition the security guys used to give us all of the 9mm, .45acp and 5.56 TZZ ammo we could shoot.

The security guys used to set up a bb gun shooting range in their hallway at night (or whenever they wanted to).

That all ended after Mugu was taken over by Marcinko's guys in 1985.

When I lived in the Dorms on Elmendorf AFB we kept all our weapons at a married buddies place in base housing.  I'd be damned if I was gonna let some greasey fingered, donut eating, SP play quick draw with my toys!

My AF experience is that if you live in housing or off-base nobody really cares what you own and nobody really wants to know.  If you live in barracks you must store them in the Security Forces arms room.  Where they are treated with varying degres of disrespect. One co-worker found his firearms were being "loaned out" to security guys without permission.  

Since 95% of all crime in the AF is committed by Security Forces, storing them with a friend or co-worker who lives off base is a much better idea.

What about NFA items like SBR's and silencers? How does the Army handle those.

Dont really want to go asking my CO, if you know what I mean

Yes.  I'm at Bragg and they take it pretty seriously.  I'm actually in a bit of trouble over this policy.  More to come when the situation is resolved.

When I was stationed at Tinker in OK I was going to buy an M16.
The Leading Enlisted armorer told me that all he cared about was that it was "legal" to own by federal and state laws.
So he had no problems.

In fact in germany when the MPs would call in for a traffic stop gun ownership data was on the same computer system. An interesting thing when one was dispatched to a domestic. (Neither good nor bad, as the wife would always have the Mark I steak knife availible for when you were putting the cuffs on the love of her life.)

I had army folks hand me their registration cards a few times during traffic stops as a no stress way to say they had their gats with them.

I almost got my AR confiscated when I was stationed a Camp Pendleton.  The only reason I didn't was because I didn't have it with me when I went to register it.  The next week I drove it back to El Paso and stored it until I retired.  

Although I never saw this in print, the word was if you were caught with an unregistered rifle or handgun in your vehicle, you were to be immediately detained.