Two letters to the editor on May 31, "Guns will not stop gun violence problem," and "Recent letter twisted crime information data," claimed the figures taken from the UN and the EU that I used in my letter on May 24, "Guns keep America safe from violence," were in fact bogus. Nonsense! Britain's Parliament banned the possession of handguns in 1997. In fact the ban on handguns did not stop actual crimes committed with handguns.

Those crimes increased nearly 40 percent according to a 2001 study by King's College London's Center for Defense studies, and doubled a decade later. The comedian Flip Wilson had a great line, "It wasn't my fault the gun made me do it."

People were killing each other before the invention of firearms. If 1500 years ago a man was found dead with an arrow in his chest, did folks say poor chap died of bow-and-arrow violence?

According to statistics from the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, America has more legally owned guns then ever before, yet statistics provided by the FBI indicate violent crime is down almost everywhere.

Guns do keep America safer.