Aled Jones' tone of moral superiority is somewhat misplaced (Strict laws can stop the gun massacres, Soapbox, April 21).

In this country, with very strict gun laws, two mass shootings have taken place in the last 20 years.

Our gun laws are now even stricter, but there is no guarantee that such shootings will not happen here again.

This is because the authorities in whom we have placed our trust are impotent to prevent the import of illegal weapons, just as they are impotent to prevent the import of illegal drugs and the arrival on our shores of illegal immigrants.

Neither is it the case that countries with liberal gun laws experience these spree killings.

Switzerland and many other European countries allow the possession of firearms by their citizens, and yet they have not experienced such events.

Indeed, in Switzerland military firearms are kept at home by a proportion of the male population as part of the country's policy of armed neutrality. Can it be, then, that mass shootings or the absence of them are an indicator of the health, or otherwise, of a particular type of society?

The likelihood is that gun sales in Virginia will increase as result of all the publicity surrounding the Virginia Tech shooting and the desire for self-defence.

The media attention given to this event will probably result in more mentally disturbed "losers" seeking to extinguish themselves in a blaze of publicity and 15 minutes of infamy.

It shouldn't be forgotten, either, that in this country four citizens blew themselves up and killed and maimed more than 100 of their fellow citizens with bombs made from materials available in any supermarket.

There is no need to reach for a gun to wreak havoc. It is the increase in the desire to commit such acts that we should be paying attention to.

Ian Waghorn, Strensall, York.