San Jose Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Matt Mahan dropped a rare truth bomb on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour, admitting that California’s sky-high gas prices—now averaging over $5 a gallon—are largely self-inflicted wounds from our many rules and regulations and the state’s aggressive push to shove all its oil refineries out of state. In a moment of candor that must have left his progressive base squirming, Mahan confessed these very policies, championed by Democrats for years under the banner of environmental virtue-signaling, are jacking up costs for everyday Californians. It’s a classic case of the Golden State’s regulatory overlords engineering scarcity to save the planet, only to leave families choosing between filling up the tank or buying groceries.
What’s fascinating here isn’t just the economic malpractice—Mahan’s own party has blocked new refineries, slapped on punitive taxes like the climate credit scam that vanishes when prices spike, and layered on emissions rules that make in-state production a nightmare. This is peak California: a one-party fiefdom where politicians virtue-signal their way to poverty for the masses while their elite donor class jets private. The implications ripple far beyond pump prices, straight into the heart of the 2A community. Gun owners in the state already face the nation’s most draconian controls—assault weapon bans, magazine limits, mandatory safety training fees that function like a poll tax, and a bloated bureaucracy delaying purchases for months. Just as refinery exodus creates fuel shortages and price gouging, California’s endless common-sense gun regs have driven manufacturers and FFL dealers out of business or out of state, leaving law-abiding citizens facing artificial scarcity, black-market premiums, and de facto confiscation by attrition.
For the 2A faithful, Mahan’s slip-up is a golden talking point: if even a rising Dem star admits their regulations are backfiring spectacularly on energy, why trust them to regulate our self-defense rights without turning law-abiding citizens into criminals? This gubernatorial wannabe’s confession underscores the real agenda—control at any cost, whether it’s your wallet at the pump or your rights in the safe. Pro-2A warriors should amplify this clip far and wide, reminding voters that the same folks plotting to push out refineries and freedoms will happily export California’s gun owners’ rights to the ash heap of history if we let them. Time to rev up the resistance before they tax your ammo next.
