Texas Massacre, Gun Control

I was amazed, then overwhelmed with disgust at the huge majority defeat by the House of Representatives of the latest gun control law only one day after the mass slaying in Texas with a machine-gun pistol of 23 innocent people doing nothing more than going about their day.

The only congressman to change his mind and vote for gun control was from the district where the slaughter occurred.

For some inexplicable reason way beyond the right to bear arms, Congress continues to let itself be held hostage. Is it by the gun control lobby? I doubt if that group is that powerful, and it certainly does not represent a majority of Americans.

Perhaps it speaks to some unreasoned instinct of self-protection based on the primal fear of extinction and stress of surviving from day to day.

In this time of recession and dim future for this country, all the rational arguments about the dangers of such weapons and the uselessness of them against our real enemies within ourselves and in others around us will continue to be unheard, not felt and not enacted into law.

However, this awful tragedy in Texas and all those that have gone before must inspire continued attempts at passing gun control laws.

ANDY WING

Laguna Beach