Letter: Don't blame guns for violence

Sir: I note that your correspondent, Colonel Badger (Letters, 13 August), cannot understand why civilian owners of firearms keep them at home, when servicemen are not permitted to do the same with their personal weapons. No doubt he was also puzzled to discover that military drivers go home in their own cars, and not in the Land Rovers and trucks they have been driving on duty. The difference that he is missing is that the firearms belonging to members of shooting clubs are their private property, not the property of the state.

This raises the issue of compensation for gun owners should the Government decide to deprive them of their legally acquired private property. Adequate compensation would cost the taxpayer several hundreds of millions of pounds. Which part of the budget will foot the bill?

A BRIARD

Warminster, Wiltshire