The VA can't even manage disability claims... and people are calling for a national registry.

[DougH 270]

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/19/174639343/veterans-face-red-tape-accessing-disability-other-benefits

Our Federal VA can't even figure out how to process disability claims for our nation's heroes. What an absolute bipartisan disgrace.

I am sure a gun registry run by the Federal government would work much better.

Quote

"If you go into any VA office you'll see stacks and stacks of paper, giant manila envelopes going up to the ceiling sometimes into the hallways. The VA inspector general reported that at the office in Winston-Salem, N.C., there was literally so much paperwork in the office that it was inhibiting the structural integrity of the building. The frustrating thing is President Obama and the VA repeatedly say that they're solving this problem and they've spent ... half a billion dollars so far to launch this computer system, but then when you look at the reality on the ground, you see that it has only been deployed to fewer than half of the offices ... and that in those offices a very small number of claims are actually in the computer system. It's full of bugs. There have been a lot of problems, and the agency has not really been able to get it off the ground in a way that it can make a meaningful difference for veterans."

Fucking disgrace.

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[regulator 0]

I've known ever since a gun registry was brought up the POTUS doesnt have an idea of the amount of resources it would take to enact a gun registration database. Even if he were to come out today with an executive decision and unite with the UN and start going door to door...there would still be plenty weapons left when his presidency ended.

And while I am a veteran I havent even been to the VA.

I am strongly opposed to long lines.

[skypuppy 1]

as I commented on another thread about canada's failed experiment with a registry...

In canada, with 1/1oth the population and probably fewer weapons/population, the cost to taxpayers of the long gun registry was 'supposed' to be 2 million with registration fees covering the rest. eventually the cost was over 2 billion before it was scrapped as useless some 19 years later, even though they never actually got around to getting all the long guns registered...

In December 2002, the Auditor-General of Canada, Sheila Fraser, reported that the project was running vastly above initial cost estimates. The report showed that the implementation of the firearms registry program by the Department of Justice has had significant strategic and management problems throughout. Taxpayers were originally expected to pay only $2 million of the budget while registration fees would cover the rest. In 1995, the Department of Justice reported to Parliament that the system would cost $119 million to implement, and that the income generated from licensing fees would be $117 million. This gives a net cost of $2 million. At the time of the 2002 audit, however, the revised estimates from the Department of Justice were that the cost of the program would be more than $1 billion by 2004-05 and that the income from licence fees in the same period would be $140 million.[7]

In February 2004, documents obtained by Zone Libre of Télévision de Radio-Canada suggested that the gun registry has cost around $2 billion so far.[7]

In May 2006, the Auditor-General of Canada, Sheila Fraser, reported that the former Liberal government twice misinformed Parliament about tens of millions of dollars of overspending at the Canada Firearms Centre. Fraser said the planned computerized gun registry system was three years overdue and so far had cost $90 million, three times more than expected.[7]

there are also allegations of the ineffectiveness. admittedly the chiefs of police (some) claim it is useful, but they get funding from the company implementing the registry, and from government officials who want them to toe the party line...

There are many conflicting views on how effective the Gun Registry is for ensuring public safety.

In a Canada Firearms Centre (CAFC) survey, 74% of general duty police officers stated that the registry "query results have proven beneficial during major operations.".[11]

However, the Auditor General's report found that the program does not collect data to analyze the effectiveness of the gun registry in meeting its stated goal of improving public safety. The report states:


The performance report focuses on activities such as issuing licences and registering firearms. The Centre does not show how these activities help minimize risks to public safety with evidence-based outcomes such as reduced deaths, injuries and threats from firearms.[12]

Former Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino opposed the gun registry, stating in a press release in 2003:


We have an ongoing gun crisis including firearms-related homicides lately in Toronto, and a law registering firearms has neither deterred these crimes nor helped us solve any of them. None of the guns we know to have been used were registered, although we believe that more than half of them were smuggled into Canada from the United States. The firearms registry is long on philosophy and short on practical results considering the money could be more effectively used for security against terrorism as well as a host of other public safety initiatives."[13]


and also, there is the question of security...

John Hicks, an Orillia-area computer consultant, and webmaster for the Canada Firearms Centre, has said that anyone with a home computer could have easily accessed names, addresses and detailed shopping lists (including make, model and serial number) of registered guns belonging to licenced firearms owners. Hicks told the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) that "During my tenure as the CFC webmaster I duly informed management that the website that interfaced to the firearms registry was flawed. It took some $15 million to develop and I broke inside into it within 30 minutes."[25]

The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters[26] questioned the security of the gun registry after a home invasion that seemed to target a licenced gun collector. The OFAH argued that, in the wrong hands, a database detailing the whereabouts of every legally-owned firearm in Canada is a potential shopping list for criminals.

In response to these privacy and security claims, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Police Association, and the Canadian Association of Police Boards released a joint statement stating that,"The CFP's national database has never been breached by hackers. Information is safe and secure."[27]

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[regulator 0]

Good post.

I did a quick search of the population of canada vs the USA.

Canada: 35,056,064 January 1, 2013
USA: 315,527,000 March 21, 2013

[DracoV 0]

The BATF can't even manage the database of machineguns and silencers with only 10,000 entries. They've repeatedly prosecuted people for having "unregistered" firearms when in fact they did register them, but the BATF either didn't make the computer entries, or screwed up the serial numbers.

Now, magnify that problem by about 10,000 to go from machineguns to all firearms in America. And add penalties of years in jail for violations that are the government's own fault. Yeah, that'll be just great!