I FEEL it necessary to challenge the alarmist article by Dr Raj Thakkar in last week's Bucks Free Press.

According to him most of the ills afflicting mankind are caused by airguns. He has to go to America to find three cases to illustrate this. Surely if you wished to condemn lethal weapons it would be more logical to consider the thousands killed or injured each year by cars. But no one dare call for them to be banned.

Today's airguns are not more powerful than in the past. Once there were no restrictions on their power. For many years now the power has been restricted, to 6ft lbs muzzle energy for pistols and 12ft lbs for rifles (to use rather old-fashioned units). Anything exceeding this is classified as a firearm, and as far as pistols are concerned, already banned like all handguns.

It is a strange fact that whenever there is a tragedy like that in Birmingham there is always a demand to ban something. The Birmingham girls were killed by machine gun bullets. Unfortunately they were already banned. What else was there? Airguns!

The trouble with banning things is that it is usually the law-abiding who are most affected. How many criminals are going to hand in their guns for a £10 token? It's laughable.

The anti-airgun campaign seems designed to distract people's attention from the fact that nobody knows how to stop real criminals getting their hands on real guns.

Of course an airgun pellet in the eye is dangerous. So is a golf ball or a poke with a sharp stick. People have to be taught responsible behaviour. Bans are not the answer. In 1997 thousands of law abiding people had their pistols confiscated, following which more guns than ever are being used in crime.

N Belson

Littleworth Road

Downley

January 24, 2003 11:00