HAVING sold guns on and off for 27 years, nothing has changed. People love guns or hate them, there is little middle ground.

There are air-gun clubs (which we supply) in York and throughout the country who are not going to close due to the attitude of Jane Roberts (Letters, October 24.)

To generalise, I have always found women like their curtains, carpets and fancy knickers, men have the same desire for guns.

Just for the record, our gnomes are on the way back, and one of them carries a gun!

The mind boggles at the upset this will cause.

Stuart Sykes,

Blue Moon Trading,

Goodramgate,

York.

...JANE Roberts was absolutely correct when she wrote about the obscenity of guns being on sale in York.

However, the menace is not just confined to the Blue Moon Trading Company but also to York Guns on King Street. Both establishments are dealing in weapons of destruction.

We have seen very recently in Washington how a single individual armed with a rifle can wreak terror over a wide area, so should we in York permit businesses to sell instruments of killing?

These firms may have a legal right to sell guns, but York is not the Wild West. There are no bears at our door.

There is no legitimate reason for anyone in the UK to own a gun. There is simply no excuse.

It's time for these places to close down or to switch to selling something innocuous for a living, such as garden gnomes.

Dave Gorman,

Fishergate, York.

Updated: 11:13 Tuesday, October 29, 2002