SIR: So Terry Lewis is appalled by the results of the Home Affairs Select Committee report on firearms (BEN, August 14) in that they did not recommend a ban on handguns. Does he not remember that his own ideas for legislative reform which were printed in the BEN soon after the tragedy at Dunblane also stopped short of such a ban? Was he appalled when he read his own proposals?

These politically-motivated comments and other similar suggestions confuse the public. Why spread the deception that another tragedy can be stopped by removing certain guns from circulation? Like every other prohibited item the reality of supply and demand will continue to increase the number of illegal firearms on the streets.

Five times as many murders are committed in Britain by knives than by guns. To argue that knives be banned is ridiculous. The argument relating to guns is equally ridiculous but by relying on the lack of knowledge that the public have of firearms matters this argument is made to look plausible.

Ian Johnson

Brailsford Road, Bolton.

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