LETTER: Why I want a gun

From Mr Ron Berry

Sir: How can I protect myself against young vandals who have scragged my garden hedge, and who throw fireworks at my living-room windows?

I am 75 and struggling to walk on two sticks. My wife is recovering from major surgery. We have been burgled twice. My wife has lost all her long- cherished jewellery. We lost cash and rare, valuable property.

My car has been tumbled over, and last summer it took me a fortnight to catch a boy of eight. He stole four petrol caps off my car.

How does one defend oneself? I do not want policemen coming to my house and offering apologies. This happens every time I write to the Chief Constable. I want advice on how to defend myself and stay within the law.

Were I half my age I would take the law into my own hands, as they say, simply by pursuing and threatening. Fear helps to civilise us all. Now I am tempted to buy a weapon - an airgun, for instance - because I am sick of being taunted and victimised by runaway young criminals.

How can my generation, people of the Twenties and Thirties, of loss and strife, how do we defend ourselves?

Yours sincerely,

Ron Berry

Rhondda, Mid Glamorgan