READING about the thug who had a baseball bat laced with knives (Evening Times August 3), he is caught with a club that has been modified so that it will pierce the skull with nails.

This is to cause max damage, if not death, and he gets a £300 fine?!

You are cheaper being a potential murderer in Glasgow than being a major criminal by entering a bus lane.

Name and address withheld

Harmless smack

YES, that’s right, lets follow the great old US of A yet again with the proposed ban on smacking children (Evening Times August 8).

Let’s have a look at their record on child killers, membership of gangs, child gun ownership.

A slap on the backside does no harm, though anything else could be construed as child abuse.

Just as an aside, I have smacked three of my children, and only once each.

My daughters grew up knowing just how far they could push (touch wood with the one that’s still at home lol) before I felt I was left with no other option.

So far, none of my kids are involved in any drug use, have zero criminal records and are well balanced and well behaved.

I`m not the perfect parent, nor even the best, but I try to be the best one I can.

Alex Watson, posted online

Disappearing discipline

NORMALLY, disciplining a child by smacking is not assault.

Talking in those terms is gross exaggeration, diminishes real assault of children as a crime and is an insult to countless millions of good parents.

Parents who assault their children or anyone else should be dealt with by the law as it is.

Smacking of children is quickly disappearing from use so I’m not surprised the Law Society wants to criminalise it.

AB Dickson, posted online

Not coming back

I’M sorry if I upset people here, but her Aqsa Mahmood’s mind was “shaped” to see ISIL as some sort of heroic crusade against western democracy. (Evening Times August 7)

She will no doubt have witnessed death, whether it be ISIL “soldiers” killed in battle, or beheadings of the “kuffah”.

If she was traumatised by this, she’d have contacted her parents and/or the authorities, begging to come home.

Since I haven’t read anywhere that this is the case, I’d say that she is fully immersed in her new life. As such, removing her passport has made her “persona non grata”, and she should be resigned to her fate.

Steven Rowan, posted online