SIR: The largest surrender of legally held property in Britain has now been completed; the deadline expired at midnight on September 30 for the handover of large calibre handguns outlawed after the Dunblane massacre.
With regard to the question of firearms and the Government's willingness to confront the IRA, I was struck by a comment made by Northern Ireland Minister Mo Mowlam on the BBC Radio.
Asked about the role of decommissioning as part of the peace process, she replied: "Well you can't force people to disarm" - a statement which must come as a shock to every legitimate gun owner, who imagined that the Government was doing precisely that.
I'm afraid that giving terrorists better treatment than law-abiding citizens is more likely to turn the citizens into terrorists than it is to turn terrorists into law abiding citizens, as the Government may come to appreciate - and regret.
B S Ford,
Farnworth, Bolton,
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Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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