LETTERS
Gun law
Sir: May I congratulate you on being the first magazine to publish an informed and unbi- ased view of the many gun massacres which have occurred worldwide in the past two years ('Virtual violence', 30 May). Would that the rest of the media had shown the same balance after the Dunblane massacre. Mark Steyn has looked beyond the anti-gun brigade's continued focus on an inanimate object and got to the crux of the problem, i.e. the human being and the influences of society.
Society today revolves around what is seen on television and in films. Youngsters are brought up on a diet of graphic violence and crime which desensitises them to what vio- lence actually does to the human body. A survey we conducted last year showed that in the top ten videos that year, there was a total of 2,539 firearms images, 286 firearms killings and 40 other murders. It is no won- der that the average British citizen believes that guns are only for killing and that only criminals and the insane possess them.
The ban-it brigade's knee-jerk response to a massacre will never solve the problem. In the United States wiser heads prevail, such as Karen Kutner, the principal of the school at Jonesboro, who said: `To me the issue is not the gun or the weapon that was used. That really had nothing to do with what happened. We have to look further than that.' And the Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckerbee, who said: 'This is not a gun issue. The ultimate precaution isn't so much what is in the hands of a kid but what is in his heart. But I am not sure we can expect a whole lot else in a culture where these children are exposed to tens of thou- sands of murders on television and in the movies, and we've desensitised human life through our callousness, disregard and dis- respect for others.'
In this country legitimate gun ownership is minimal compared to 50 years ago, yet armed crime has rocketed. The problem here is not legitimate gun ownership but how certificates are issued and the thou- sands of illegal guns flooding into the coun- try. During the passage of the 1997 Firearms Acts we campaigned for the intro- duction of a professional Firearms Control Board which would vet more thoroughly who gets firearms certificates. As it is, noth- ing has changed except that an inanimate object has been banned. In the meantime, shooters are carrying on with their sport using other types of guns.
It is time that the anti-gun brigade realise that we, the so-called UK gun lobby, are on the same side. When they begin to listen to and analyse our arguments they may then see the sense in working with us. Only then can we address the true issues behind the UK's gun problems, such as the policing failures which allowed Hamilton his guns; and truly prevent another Dunblane occur- ring. As it is, by forcing through knee-jerk legislation, all the anti-gun brigade have achieved is the destruction of 2,000 jobs, the loss of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money in compensation and the destruction of a sport enjoyed by 57,000 people.
Albie Fox
Sportsman's Association, SES, The Old Brewery Yard, Shrewsbury, Shropshire
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