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Re: Gun registry backfires after system exceeds capacity (June 5)

I found the article on the gun registry quite interesting. With the mad cow problem I would be interested in an article

on the cattle registry, possibly with some comparison to the gun registry. How are they doing things differently, what is working, what is not working?

Anthony B. Nelson
President
ESTec Systems Corp.

Re: Gun registry backfires after system exceeds capacity (June 5)

I would like to comment on the unfounded accusations made by David Austin, the Canadian Firearms Centre’s communications officer, and Wendy Cukier from the so-called Coalition for Gun Control.

Both of these stalwart proponents of the Liberal’s much flawed gun control legislation are just plain out to lunch with respect to their allegations that their beloved gun registration system was intentionally sabotaged during the final days of 2002. The reality is that the system was simply overloaded by the myriad of irate firearms owners that waited until the very last minute to register their firearms. The fact that these individuals waited to the last possible days illustrates the total lack of support for the registration portion of the Liberal’s Firearms Act within the Recreational Firearms Community.

Note that I referred to individuals rather than some sinister group or organization. Cukier and Austin continually make references to the notorious gun lobby. This “”boogeyman”” lobby group that that they constantly hold up to the non-gun owning public as their nemesis is quite imaginary! There is no organized gun lobby in Canada. People who use firearms recreationally in Canada, such as hunters and competitive target shooters, may belong to some sort of sport governing body, such as the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association, or provincial Hunters and Anglers Federation. However, there is no national body that could act for us as a lobby, like the National Rifle Association does for our American neighbours to the south.

Cukier is fond of saying that 80 per cent of Canadians are in favour of gun control. I believe that she is right about this! The vast majority of firearms owners also believe in gun control. That is to say that we do not want to see firearms in the hands of criminals; that we believe in firearms licensing with the background checks, firearms safety training, safe gun handling and storage, etcetera. What we don’t believe in is the need to support a costly and useless registry. As we are fond of saying, criminals don’t register their firearms!

Frederick Guse
CSSA instructor/Webmaster
Grenville Fish and Game Club

Re: Gun registry backfires after system exceeds capacity (June 5)

The article on the computer problems at the Canadian Firearms Centre was hilarious.

In writing the facts, would it not be an idea to talk to both sides? Three times in the past two years I have been told that I do not have any firearms registered in the system. The last time was on Dec. 7, 2002. I received a letter from these “”experts”” reporting that I had no firearms registered in the system.

I held a press conference which received national coverage where I showed pistols, rifles and shotguns all along with their registration certificates from this billion dollar boondoggle.

Interesting? Yes. Political Spin? Hell no. Of course you were just duped by David Austin who is a master at spin. I hope you are not too dizzy.

Jim Hinter
National president
National Firearms Association


Re: RBC creates diversity council to assess client data (May 4)

Data collection may be a start, followed by analysis by committees, but the real results come when you do something with the data. When banks abandon local services — have their small business customers handled by way of an 800 number operating out of, say, New Brunswick — they have only themselves to blame. Stop gathering facts and start to understand how to deliver services.

Unfortunately the focus is still on the “”big deal.”” Canadian banks never have and never will actually want the to focus their attention on the mass market. If there was real effort behind their wishes, borrowing and other functions would not be so difficult. Our banks are not interested in risk.

Robert Lane


Re: Broadband and broomsticks (May 3)

Read your article “”Broadband and broomsticks”” and felt it was very apropos for the time and place for us IT practitioners.

A logical explanation rather than Wicca could be the answer. Let me explain.

Any data center, building, office, home, condo or warehouse built or updated in the ’60s, ’70s or ’80s could be subject to a “”microscopic catastrophe.”” That is, if they are experiencing the same or more unexplained PC or server problems. The problem may be in the flooring, which goes by the name zinc-whiskers. If your building or house contains galvanized metal, you may be experiencing the side effects of these nasty unseen creatures.

Robb Schuster
Technical support
Acuity Networks

Re: Broadband and broomsticks (May 3)

Reading your stories, comments and suggestions is a real pleasure and always puts a smile on my face, especially after just reading “”Broadband and broomsticks.”” Keep up the good work.

Dieter Reimers

Re: Broadband and broomsticks (May 3)

I got a kick out of your article.

I too have experienced these mysterious errors and their equally mysterious self-correction, but from the support end. I call it the DPE (Developer Proximity Effect). I’m a developer who also does software and hardware support, and I’ve lost count of the number of times a user has called me because something isn’t working, isn’t working correctly, or is doing something weird. I show up and it works correctly first try, often without me even having to touch their computer. Just being there seems to fix the problem.

Maybe I was a witch (warlock?) in a previous life.

Cy McCargar


Letters to the editor must include the writer’s name and company name along with an e-mail address or other contact information. All letters become the property of ITBusiness.ca. Editors reserve the right to edit submissions for length and content.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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