“Yeah, but…” – An Ode to the Perpetual Naysayers”
“Yeah, but….”
We all know people who pepper their conversations with “Yeah, but….” – they just can’t resist throwing a wet blanket on the most positive of situations. Make no mistake – being a realist is smart way of looking at things, but being a perpetual Gloomy Gus does no one any good at all.
Take the recent 2A win with the defeat of SB 918 and AB 1227. Both awful bills weren’t able to scale the final legislative hill, and from GOC’s perspective, that’s damn good news – no matter how you look at it. Did the CCW holders in California benefit from a legislative rule that prevented SB 918 from passing? Darn straight they did – and make no mistake – understanding the inner workings of the Legislature has been key to some of our victories – in spite of enormous odds against us. “Yeah, but…they’re just going to come back again next year!”
That’s kind of like whining that a world series winner is – OH NO – going to have to battle again next year for the pennant!
Senator Portantino, Attorney General Rob Bonta and yes – even Governor Newsom miscalculated and we got the spoils of war; they didn’t do their due diligence and so certain were they – who have a virtual Leftist stranglehold on the Legislature – forgot that some of their fellow Democrats actually understand what the Constitution is. It’s not easy stiff arming the powers that be, and we are grateful for the likes of Adam Gray, Ken Cooley, Rudy Salas for voting no, and Juaquin Arambula, Jim Cooper, Patrick O’Donnell and James Ramos for laying off the bill by not voting. Portantino had counted on the retiring O’Donnell, who later said that Portantino was to blame. He said the senator’s staff “couldn’t answer basic questions about the bill” and that “I’m not going to pass something, even on my last day in the Legislature, that may not be constitutional.”
Did this make the Portantino crew angry? You bet it did.
Portantino told AP that “This was a priority for the governor, a priority for the AG and a priority for me, and all of us were working it throughout the night.” Bonta admitted that once the Legislature returns, that he has every intention “to push this through.” The handwriting is on the wall – they will be loaded for bear (pun fully intended.)
For all the “Yeah, buts” out there, the defeat, particularly of SB 918 bought us sufficient time to continue with multiple lawsuits that address this exact issue in federal court. There is a strong probability that decisions will be rendered before the anti-gun cabal can push forward their new bill. We also believe that there will still be some legislative Democrats who are capable of comprehending that the CCW restrictions posed by SB 918 are wholly unconstitutional.
That being said, we are not political greenhorns at GOC. We’ve been around long enough and have seen enough to acknowledge there are sufficient constitutional and Second Amendment hating Democrats in the legislature to pass these measures by a simple majority vote. The bottom line is, we will see them in court.
“Yeah, but…” – forget that baloney.