Gun ownership

I refer to the letter by Noel Azzopardi, secretary of the Arms, Armour and Militaria Society in reply to mine.

The information in my letter comes from many articles and reports published in the media pertaining to Malta. My letter to The Times was in praise of a well-balanced viewpoint, which was not motivated by either the pros or cons of the hunting lobby or conservationists. I could quote chapter and verse and cite many hundreds of instances in the last couple of years of people in Malta being prosecuted for not having a lawful right to own or use firearms. In the article "Weapons used in crime" (The Times, March 21), it was stated that "The police last year received 76 reports of crimes in which firearms were used. In eight of the cases the weapons were licensed, Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg told Labour MP Adrian Vassallo in reply to a parliamentary question."

Mr Azzopardi went on to use language such as "[his] forefathers` colonisation of these islands". Unless Mr Azzopardi happens to know my ethnicity, he should avoid such phobic claims. Many people living in Malta have British roots, of which they are justly proud. This is just a smokescreen in an attempt to play the colonial card in an effort to divert the reader from the main thrust of my comments.

I am happy to support Mr Azzopardi in his quest for "reasonable new legislation, to allow for shooting sports by licensed target shooters as well as gun collecting by licensed collectors". The key point here is that the shooting and collection (ownership) of firearms is lawful and licensed and practised by people willing to abide by the regulations.

Factually, Mr Azzopardi is wrong to say that the UK was suffering an "epidemic of illegal guns of all types and their widespread use in violent crimes". This happens to be another smokescreen to divert the reader. The change in the UK law removed many thousands of firearms from licensed public ownership and from illegal ownership through an amnesty on firearms. I wonder if the people of Malta would also like their politicians to do a similar procedure. There would be an opportunity here to collect many illegally held firearms and remove them from possibly falling into the wrong hands.

As for the comment "indiscriminate gun prohibitions [in the UK] enacted by his politicians" - in this context the "enacted prohibitions" are perfectly lawful and done with the will of the majority of people in the UK.

The use by the British police of stop-and-search powers long precedes the changes in the law on the ownership of firearms.

Mr Azzopardi also claims that the use of stop-and-search is a further erosion of "my" rights as a citizen. That`s not true, their use has my full support, it improves my safety and the safety of my family.

Mr Azzopardi also uses the phrase "mother of parliamentary democracies". This is a reference to another urban myth. While there is some truth in the longevity of the British parliamentary system, referring to it as the mother of such systems would be factually wrong.