YOUR comment on air guns (Echo, Aug 20) makes a fair assertion on the issue of these lethal weapons, and the fact that it is as simple to buy an air gun as it is to buy a packet of sweets must be of serious concern to the majority who would like to see them banned altogether. If guns are to be allowed, their use should be in a firing range environment and nowhere else.

The usual suggestion that incidents of misuse are rare is a lie and a misrepresentation. While human damage may be occasional, the same cannot be said of the damage and carnage caused to our wildlife.

Air weapons of today are dangerous and can be lethal as the leader writer states, their acceptance as a toy is no longer acceptable and Parliament should take the appropriate action now. - J Young, Crook.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

OH dear, once again we have the situation where a member of the clergy preaches rehabilitation for downright evil wrongdoers and a prominent MP calls for the restoration of capital punishment in the knowledge that the present government will never even consider it because we are now governed by Brussels.

It must be apparent to anyone with a modicum of humanity that there are evil people who will kill children for perverted pleasure knowing that they are not liable to the ultimate punishment and for whom the word rehabilitation merely means being able to fuel their perverted desires from the comfort of their prison cells.

Surely, contrary to what the Bishop of Durham says, it is detrimental to society not to have an adequate deterrent to protect our children in particular, and society in general from those who are prepared to torture and kill for pleasure or gain. - W Lippett, Darlington.

WHEN thinking about the murderers of children, I am very unchristian so, in fact, was our Lord himself. Not only did he say paedophiles and the like should be drowned, he said they should never have been born.

Our society does not, however, take its responsibility to the vulnerable - children and old people - as seriously as our Lord did. When did we last afford them anything like effective protection?

And hasn't it been blatantly obvious for years that grossly unsuitable characters get jobs, with appalling frequency, that provide access to the vulnerable?

As for the flowers and the offer of counselling: rubbish. Those are for our comfort, and comforting ourselves is the last thing we should be doing. - T Kelly, Crook.

DURHAM CRICKET

I CANNOT agree with the criticism of Durham County Cricket team by John Todd (HAS, Aug 21).

Granted they were well beaten against Glamorgan, but the local youngsters had no support from the two experienced and well paid non-local players who both failed to score and did not bowl well.

With Collingwood, Harmison, and Muchall on international duties, and the injuries to Love, Brown, Bridge, and others, the youngsters have done well. We now have the best fielding side we ever had, with Gary Pratt showing the way with 11 run-outs.

We have had well paid experienced players here in the past, and some showed no loyalty to the club and only took the money. I would hate to see cricket going the way of football, with teams of foreign players with unpronounceable names.

The criticism of Geoff Cook is unfounded. We now have youngsters coming though that will soon be the targets of other counties.

I also have been a member since the beginning following them not only in this country, but abroad, and would sooner watch the present team than some of the has-beens of the past. - H Wilson, Houghton-le-Spring.

SADDAM HUSSEIN

CHRIS Wardell (HAS, Aug 17) makes an attack on "left wing idiots": I'm left wing but not an idiot, concerned about the destruction of innocent human beings, men, women, children, babies.

Wasn't it enough when George Bush senior, along with John Major, in 1991, sent the uranium-coated, cancer-causing missiles against the Iraqi people?

Wasn't it enough when economic sanctions (the withholding of food and medical aid) were imposed on the Iraqi people? Wasn't it enough when Norman Schwarzkopf, Commander of Operation Desert Storm in 1991, said after the war, probably boasting: "We bombed them back into the Dark Ages".

The militarists, like Mr Wardell, who regularly write to Hear All Sides, would do well to consider the issues seriously before they go into print in support of warlords like George Bush. - Rev J Stephenson, East Herrington.

TRADE UNIONS

AS an OAP, I have been a supporter of Labour all my life, as well as being a lifelong union member. But what I see now, is that our present day union leaders are nothing more than active militants.

They still believe the age-old ideals that when a Labour government is in power, they can demand, and get, whatever they ask for, and whatever that may be, it was not negotiable.

They are stuck in a time warp, with the same ideals that destroyed past Labour governments and will destroy future governments, if allowed.

These dinosaurs still believe that they are solely responsible for the success of the Labour Party, forgetting that, at the time of the elections, the unions were almost non-existent. They don't understand that most of the voters were non-unionists at the time.

At the time of their inauguration, unions were a necessity to fight for workers' rights, but those same rights are now monitored by government legislation as well as work tribunals and civil rights.

No one should be denied a living wage but common sense must prevail, and holding the country to ransom with the threat of strikes is not the way, as the miners in this area sadly realised. Unions guarantee an affluent lifestyle to no-one except their leaders.

Tony Blair put it in the right perspective when he spoke of the demonstrations during the fuel crisis. He said: "It is their right to protest, but not to bring our country to a standstill."

In other words, these militants are the unions' worst enemies. - T Seale, Middlesbrough.