What a pity the correspondent (Letters, October 9) replying to my points about firearms - who did not have the courage to give name and address, although I cannot think why - has not read the news recently.

Since the Dunblane handgun ban, gun crime here has gone up by 40 per cent generally and 100 per cent in London. It would be interesting to know how many innocent people have already lost their lives for this official folly - the taking of licensed guns from the right hands. What a memorial to the tragic victims of Dunblane.

I assure you, anon, I am not forming or arming my own Home Guard. That requires authoritive sanction. I mention this because, as a young child, I remember how long it took to organise the Home Guard for the last war. They started as Local Defence Volunteers, having armbands but no uniform, and had hand-grenade practice by throwing half-bricks at an old pram towed on a long string. This represented a German motorcyle and sidecar.

I previously mentioned, on this page, the fear the enemy had early in the Great War of volunteer British riflemen, trained in their own rifle clubs here. What chance of history repeating itself now? Nanny has taken care of that.

-Richard Halfpenny, New Road, Rustington