Capt Edward Bamford, Commando Training Centre, Lympstone, Exmouth, writes:

In response to a recent letter, ‘Devon’s own killing fields’, Gazette, September 30, I feel I must comment on how we can only be thankful that people like the writer of this letter have and never will be relied upon for the protection of this nation.

How easy it is for them in their comfortable lives to ­comment on the ‘dangers’ of a badger cull.

I beg readers to imagine themselves as current residents of the city Aleppo reading this letter, where it is not the very unlikely threat of a small-­calibre round that you face, but the very real threat of a barrel bomb laced with mustard gas.

How lucky we are that the worry of the current day is maybe – I emphasise maybe – a small-calibre round harmlessly ricocheting into the side of a hill somewhere, and not the threat of Nazi invasion or nuclear war.

The public is not threatened as a result of this cull. These ‘marksmen’ go out hunting regardless after rabbits, foxes and deer. What is the difference between hunting these species and badgers? Nothing at all.

The facts about these firearms owners and safety measures taken by everyone involved are being hidden or manipulated in order to scare and subvert the local population to fit what is, quite frankly, a feeble pacifist agenda.