pick up bill SIR: Dorothy Waters (BEN: June 18) is right to point out that the proposed total ban on hand guns will not influence the increasing level of hand guns possessed illegally - the ban will mean that the police now do not know who possesses them! She is also right to question the spending of £130 million to compensate holders of firearms - independent Home Office research identifies a sum nearer £1 billion - when the government has other spending priorities.

However, since both the previous and current governments wish to impose a ban, then natural justice demands that holders of legal firearms should be compensated if their possession becomes illegal. Otherwise confiscating, which brings back memories of Nazi Germany to many minority groups alive in the 1930s and 1940s, is the situation that sporting shooters face. Since we are told that public opinion favours a total ban, then the public (ie the taxpayer) must pick up the bill.

While paying for the ban, however, the public must ponder upon like society which kills over 3,500 of its population each year on the roads, over 600 in fires and none of its members with .22 Olympic class pistols!

Richard Horrocks, Church Road, Bolton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.