ONCE again we read about heavy-handed, over-the-top tactics by the Greater Manchester Police Firearms Units, (BEN, August 8) -- Armed police in toy gun drama). This time, a young pregnant woman's home in Farnworth was raided.

All it now needs is a neurotic pedestrian, or a person with a grudge against you, to report that they saw you with something that may look like a firearm, and you will get the posse round, armed to the teeth.

If the police believed that the case of Angela Fildes was an armed incident, WHY did it take 15 heavily-armed police officers to raid her home SEVEN HOURS after the report of the toy gun in her car? Her car was on her drive, the toy gun still on the rear seat. All the police officers had to pass the car.

Is it any wonder the public want the right to defend their family and property if it takes that long for the police to arrive?

Police officers are not soldiers, they are civilians appointed to keep the peace, to protect lives and property.

Does the Association of Chief Police Officers (A.C.P.O.) want the Police Force of today to become a branch of the military services? If this were to happen, it would be against civil liberties and totally against a democratic society in this country.

In the case of Angela Fildes -- mistakes can, and will, inevitably, happen. It would be disastrous if a police officer's firearm accidentally discharged -- a totally innocent person could get killed in their own living room. Accidents do happen.

It is about time the police and the media stopped whipping-up hysteria about firearms. Twenty years ago, there were three times the number of legally-held firearms in this country than there are today.

Brian Scott Ford

Brentwood Drive

Farnworth