WHILE I agree that the carrying and criminal misuse of knives is unacceptable and should be stopped, I was unable to appreciate the connection between the two cases cited in your investigation (LET, November 4) and the campaign to ban the sale and possession of 'combat' knives.

One incident occurred in a kitchen when the drunken murderer picked up and used a kitchen knife, and the other was perpetrated by a drunken teenager using a penknife. Combat knives were not used in either attack and the only similarity between the two terrible events were that both killers had been drinking.

It appears that, at least in these cases, a call for the ban on the sale of alcoholic drinks is more appropriate than the banning of combat knives.

MICHAEL E WELSH, Thornhill Avenue, Rishton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.