GUN LAWS; ONCE again police have been called to deal with a firearm incident. This time it was a cigarette lighter in the guise of a replica Smith and Wesson revolver.

The incident ended with the guns (cigarette lighters) being confiscated.

I can only assume that no offences were committed by these youths carrying them. Surely nobody can have any rational excuse for carrying around replica guns.

There was a time when youths routinely armed themselves with flick knifes and knuckle-dusters until a law was brought in to make it illegal. Modern youth got around this by carrying other weapons such as screwdrivers which were equally lethal but were not deemed offensive.

The authorities responded by making it an offence to carry a bladed instrument.

It was believed that this would not work and that respectable people would find themselves being arrested for carrying screwdrivers and kitchen knives. However, this did not happen and only those that police believed had sinister motives found themselves being arrested.

Now we have this new menace of the gun culture and so far the authorities' response has been extremely muted. If an imitation/replica gun carried in a public place is not an offence, I really don't know what is.

I can only assume that, when these two youths demand the return of their gun cigarette lighters, they will be given them back and I suppose their solicitors will demand compensation for the trauma of being made to hand over their cigarette lighters at gun point.

Who was it that said the law was an ass? - B Peacock, Barnard Castle.

WAR ON IRAQ

I BELIEVE it is possible that the police will be questioning the widow of the very sick man who wished to die in Switzerland where this is legal.

How can this investigation be considered when Tony Blair and George Bush are besotted with the ideal of killing hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent people who want to live?

I don't know how these two can live with themselves as both profess to be Christians. - Ruth Neesam, Thirsk.

FIRE STRIKE

ONCE again we have had the firefighters on strike. Why do they bother?

If the wages are so rubbish, why did they take the job on in the first place? Why don't leave and do the second job they have got?

I, for one, will not support them, like a lot of people up and down the country. - Stephen Beaton, Darlington.

SUNDERLAND FC

SUNDERLAND will be lucky not to be relegated this season.

I do not rate the new manager, Howard Wilkinson. But he has been saddled with a poor squad and no money to buy new players. It does not look promising, even with weak teams like West Bromwich Albion and Bolton in the League to help them keep up. - N Tate, Darlington.

NEWCASTLE United chairman Freddy Shepherd has reportedly been in Brazil in order to try and arrange the transfer of Brazilian World Cup winner Kleberson, while Sunderland chairman Bob Murray CBE (Catastrophe Before Easter?) is allegedly denying his manager Howard Wilkinson funds to buy footballers who may prevent his club from slipping into the abyss that is the Nationwide League.

Also this week we have Bobby Robson publicly stating he wants to sign Leeds United's £10m rated defender Jonathan Woodgate, with full backing to do so from his board of directors.

Newcastle act and show ambition. Bob Murray and his board fiddle while Rome burns. Newcastle sit third from the top of the Premiership, while Sunderland sit third bottom.

Anyone suggest any reasons why this should be the case?

As a matter of interest I am a Sunderland supporter not a gloating Magpie. - Mike Barnett, Hetton-le-Hole.

PIT PENSIONS

MAY I comment on Stuart Arnold's write up 'Wrangle over pit pensions' (Echo, Jan 20)?

He commented (Echo, Jan 18) of Energy Minister Brian Wilson's statement that, had the Government's guarantee of pension benefits not been in place, bonuses already paid under the scheme could not have been possible.

My letter (HAS, Feb 5, 2002) showed that bonus payments totalling 20.13 per cent had been paid 1990-94 prior to the guaranteed agreement becoming operable, thereby proving that Mr Wilson's statement was incorrect.

Yet Mr Arnold in his recent article repeats this same erroneous statement made by a spokesman for the DTI.

This statement is just a feeble effort to vindicate the Government's £5bn rake off from the miners' pension fund. - A Greathead, Trimdon Village.

SMUGGLING

THE leader (Echo, Jan 20) on combatting smuggling is about ten years too late and is closing the stable door after the damage has been done.

The point regarding smoking and the Government's concern for people's health is vague when one considers the fact that the Government and its attempts to rid us of the problems has been a fiasco from start to the present situation.

The fact that people can go to Europe on holiday or for the day and come back with so much tobacco and alcohol means it makes no sense to keep up hiking the tax and then suggest to smugglers and citizens are the cause.

How much does it cost the taxpayer to fund the police and customs to try and stop £3.5bn a year from being lost to the Treasury? A damn sight more I bet.

Such appeals to the citizens' consciences are irrelevant when the majority of us know we are taxed to the hilt so that the Government and its minions can pay themselves well, live the good life and expect the British citizen to swallow their politically correct, sentimental, human rights hogwash.

If we want to stop the smuggling then either ban smoking or stop the tax fiasco. Then, as far as drugs and crime are concerned, bring in laws of deterrent and justice for the majority of us who are sick and fed up of this whole sorry lot. - John Young, Crook.