Gun control bill's co-author helps kill it

California politics, and in particular, San Francisco politics crack me up. Consider the ridiculous AB352, proposed by Paul Koretz of West Hollywood, which would have required that semiautomatic handguns leave a microscopic ID on the back of shell cases they fired. Nevermind that the technology is sci-fi, and nevermind that criminals would easily circumvent this future tech, Leland Yee of San Francisco was not be dissuaded by such trivialities in his support of the bill. He voted FOR it THREE separate times.

But then a funny thing happened on the way to the Assembly floor. Yee apparently changed his mind. Sort of.

As the acting speaker when the bill came up for consideration, Yee had the power to manage the pace of bills being voted on. When this bill came up for a vote, the "yes" voters weren't on the floor. Yee zoomed right through the process, and it came up 3 votes short, after Yee himself abstained. The kiss of death.

Here's the kicker:

Under Assembly rules, since Yee wasn't the deciding vote, he was allowed to go back after the bill had died and change his vote to "yes." Which he did.

Thus, Yee can still brag that he officially voted for the bill -- even though his actions helped kill it.

How's that for politics?

Works for me.