Texas Governor Greg Abbott made clear during his State of the State address yesterday that the Lone Star State would soon join the super-majority of states that allows law-abiding citizens to open carry holstered handguns:

Let me briefly follow up on a word I mentioned a moment ago – liberty. In a single word, it encapsulates what this country stands for, what Texas symbolizes. I will expand liberty in Texas by signing a law that makes Texas the 45th state to allow Open Carry.

The affirmation is a clear defeat for supporters of gun control, who campaigned hard to retain laws banning open carry that are among the most outdated in the nation.

Amusingly, the gun control group that has invested the most time, energy, money, and political capital in attempting to stop open carry isn’t admitting defeat. In a comical bit of misdirection noted by our friend AWR Hawkins at Breitbart News, Moms Demand Founder Shannon Watts insists that her group isn’t retreating, but is instead advancing in the opposite direction.

Open carry in Texas is something Moms Demand Action has been fighting against for more than year. And as recently as February 13, Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts described open carry as an “unsafe” behavior promoted by the NRA and claimed it “is bad for America.”

Watts wrote:

The safety of our children and families in our communities is paramount, and open carry is not a step in the right direction. We refuse to have to consider whether people who are open carrying around our children and families are members of law enforcement sworn to protect us, or if they are activists making a political statement, or dangerous criminals we should run from.

She even quoted former Governor Rick Perry (R) favorably because he said he wasn’t “all that fond” of open carry.

Yet, just hours after Governor Abbott made clear that Texas will allow open carry, Watts moved the goalposts and suggested Moms Demand Action still hadn’t lost because the bill Abbott will sign has yet to land on his desk and, even when it does, “it will likely require permitting.”

Regular readers of Bearing Arms know that Moms Demand was so desperate to stop open carry outright in Texas that Moms Demand representative Kelly Burke blatantly lied to the Texas Senate State Affairs committee just last week in a desperate bid to halt support for the bill.

Now they’re attempting to salvage some small victory by claiming that their defeat isn’t complete annihilation. Watts’ rallying cry is now a whimpered, “but they’ll probably need permits.”

Shannon Watts’ sad attempt to claim victory in the face of obvious defeat in Austin reminds me of the claims of Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf during the fall of the Iraqi capital during the U.S. invasion.

You might not recognize al-Sahhaf’s real name, but you may remember his bombastic broadcasts during the invasion of Iraq.  He kept insisting that American forces were being slaughtered in the desert near the Kuwaiti border when American tanks were not just in the capitol, but could clearly be heard just hundreds of yards behind him.

After failing to convince Chili’s, Chipotle, New Seasons Market, Panera Bread, Sonic Drive Ins,  Starbucks, Target, Kroger, Harris Teeter and other national retails chain to adopt policy changes banning open carry, Moms Demand declared victory each time, just as they are attempting to declare “victory” in failing to stop Texas adopting open carry laws.

It’s almost amusing to see them continually losing, and their protests getting smaller and smaller.

Almost.