Firearm Registry

**armandvdwalt** · 17-07-2018, 17:27

Originally Posted by WCC

Imagine if we could develop an app that can provide all the info, scan your fingerprints, submit and use an electronic payment. You won’t even have to visit your dfo. Just imagine if this app, does your renewals automatically. Your phone will have the digital license. Approvals can be done instantaneous and exceptions within a day if you need a human to verify what was flagged.

You can buy a fingerprint scanner for R500 yet SAPS still spends crazy money on ink, paper towels and cleaners. :( Imagine how much money and resources are going to waste due to the inefficiency which is the CFR system and processes.

I read somewhere about the company that got the tender, and then I shake my head and feel so bad, how can they charge that amount of money for something so simple... Think the original quote was 80 odd mill and in the end total costs was around 400 odd mil and the project was never completed.

Companies like that is a disgrace to all software developers out there.

**Wanderin' Zero** · 17-07-2018, 18:21

Waymark.

**A-R** · 17-07-2018, 18:36

There might be a demand for such a reminder system, although just using your phone calendar app should be able to do just the same. Just takes a few minutes to input the data. There is alway the concern over the safety of any such database with sensitive information. (I have no desire to have a list of my FA's get into a hacker's hands.) Also keep in mind the typical 2-year upgrade cycle and the need to transfer the app or data every time. Is it possible that some data may get lost/corrupted during the 5 upgrades in 1 (S15/16) license cycle?

What we really need (accepting the need for a CFR in the first place) is a symple national system for transferring fire arms from 1 owner to the next. Licensed dealers and DFO's should have access. So when a person is certified competent (for a certain category) the dealer merely accesses the database and transfers the FA from his stock to that person's "stock". When he sells the FA to another competent person, they go to the DFO and have the FA transferred from 1 to the other. Simple, easy and effective, and serves the same purpose as the current convulted system. Just the "motivation" nonsense is omitted, as it is totally illogical that a desk-jockey in Veritas building can decide wheither you actually need a FA or not, for a purpose that he has zero understanding of. And about a million trees are saved by doing away with all the reams of paperwork.

**piglet** · 17-07-2018, 18:37

It's not a disgrace, that how tenders work in S.A. .... to family ...
I think it's a good idea you might have to liaise with other clubs because wingshooters offers something simmilar

**armandvdwalt** · 17-07-2018, 20:44

Originally Posted by A-R

There might be a demand for such a reminder system, although just using your phone calendar app should be able to do just the same. Just takes a few minutes to input the data. There is alway the concern over the safety of any such database with sensitive information. (I have no desire to have a list of my FA's get into a hacker's hands.)

This about hackers is my main concern, my plan would be to encrypt the all sensitive data on database level, so even when a hack happens the data would be useless. This is why I haven't started developing yet, just want to make sure that when I start I don't have to worry about data that might get hacked.

Depending on costs, I might consider putting this on something like Azure or AWS to mitigate the risks somewhat. But data safety is the most important part with something like this.

**WCC** · 17-07-2018, 22:25

You have a noble attitude, but I think if the minister and SAPS had the will to do it, your services and others like you could be used much more effective than a mere notification app.
The CFR system is a good candidate for a distributed ledger. I have used Azure to spin up nodes and run a few Ethereum POCs - easy and simple. If I let my team loose on this we can set this up in a few months on a cloud platform. If we had access to the criminal records and home affairs DBs, we could autumated the process insofar as the powers that be grants us a mandate.

The likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft spend more on data and infrastructure security than entire nations do and they can scale. Netflix runs on AWS and when they have a premier release it can use up to a 3rd of all the US bandwidth. They run so effieciently that they will ‘kill’ their own servers to provide the best client experience. Possibilities are endless!
But the political will is not there and the inefficiency keeps people in cushy jops with no recourse and the backhand open for whatever pockets need to be lined. This gov and their technical aptness is so far behind that they may as well be sitting in the dark ages chiseling away on a rock tablet thinking they are mobile.

**Andre in Alberton** · 18-07-2018, 17:36

For how many years hav we had SARS efiling now? There is proof that it is possible. I cannot understand that in 2018 we are still filling in paper forms and sending backwards and forwards. Think of all the man hours spent by DFOs all over the country driving to and from Provincial with the packs of paper apps. If this was online like efiling your app would be in Pretoria in seconds. Next step would be notification to printers. In theory your app could be processed in like 5 working days. And then we all saved plenty of trees.

But then there go the tenders. And then application process is simpler and easier, hence more firearm applications can be processed. I don't think this sits well with the authorities. Conspiracy theorists out there can spice this up a lot more.

**armandvdwalt** · 19-07-2018, 10:53

Originally Posted by Andre in Alberton

For how many years hav we had SARS efiling now? There is proof that it is possible. I cannot understand that in 2018 we are still filling in paper forms and sending backwards and forwards. Think of all the man hours spent by DFOs all over the country driving to and from Provincial with the packs of paper apps. If this was online like efiling your app would be in Pretoria in seconds. Next step would be notification to printers. In theory your app could be processed in like 5 working days. And then we all saved plenty of trees.

But then there go the tenders. And then application process is simpler and easier, hence more firearm applications can be processed. I don't think this sits well with the authorities. Conspiracy theorists out there can spice this up a lot more.

If we take into account what is written in The President's Keepers, we can clearly see there was a time SARS was super well managed, and I believe the awesome efiling was done in that same time. Although I have some issues with it, like why must I use Internet Explorer, but all in all, it is super convenient, and I wish other state departments could be run the same way as the way SARS was run back then