MATTHEW Clarke's utopian view of gun control (You Say, Tuesday, April 22) doesn't actually touch on the subject of gun-related homicides, surely the biggest worry of all.

The USA, with its overly liberal attitude to gun control has a homicide rate which in 1999 was over 34 times higher than in the UK (source: Harvard Injury Control Research Centre).

Given a choice I'd rather be burgled than murdered!

To compare the UK with the countries he quotes is also rather nave.

Canada has one of the lowest population per square kilometre of any country in the world, which would explain the (relatively) low incidence of gun-related homicide.

Switzerland is more affluent, therefore has less petty crime, but still has a homicide rate four times higher than the UK.

To bring Israel - a country where national service is the norm and a state of emergency has been going on for more than 50 years - into the picture is insulting the intelligence.

I am proficient with various weapons from my time in the ACF and Territorial Army. But, strangely enough, I don't feel my civil liberties are being undermined simply because I can't keep a GPMG in my bedroom!

BEN EATON, Stourport.