and i loved every second of it. i paid with ammo without showing a permit. no tax. i found everything was cheaper! why is everyone not in free Hampshire?
Well I am personally not that inconvenienced by living in Mass. A lot of my firearms were either acquired back in the day when there were no restrictions on what a person could purchase here in Mass, or I purchased them when I was stationed in the military out of state. I'm not a big Glock fan and I do not have the need to buy the latest polymer 18 shot wonder pistol master blaster, my Browning Hi Powers and 3rd Gen S&Ws will do quite nicely thank you. I also have my Colts collected over a span of many years, many of which I couldn't purchase anyway because that firm no longer makes them. These days I usually carry some sort of .45 or revolver so high cap sidearms aren't a big deal to me anyway. With regard to having a LTC, I live in a Green Town and have had absolutely no issues and potentially won't for a least another four years. High cap magazines? Most of the high cap guns I purchased were years ago and I bought plenty of mags for them in 1994 or I have subsequently purchased pre-ban mags, I have been going to the same gun shop for the past 24 years, I show them my LTC automatically, because they are nice guys and I don't want to jam them up just like I show my retired military ID at Hanscom AFB commissary or BX or the small PX at US Army Garrison Ft Devens. Having spent many years in the military pulling out an ID card to buy something, or even to enter a building is just not a big deal to me YMMV.
Yes, I pay taxes, but I don't pay exorbitant property taxes, which is the Achilles heel of NH. A certain percentage of my income is state tax exempt. I also live only about 15 miles from the NH border and can be across the line in 20 minutes.
Now does this mean that I will stay in Massachusetts the rest of my life? Maybe and maybe not depending on how the firearms situation goes, we get a Red COP or the laws change so they are absolutely intolerable, then I will move, when I retire I might move to a place with a lower cost of living, but it would not be NH, PA or possibly GA come to mind.
No children, all steps live out of state and are adults...absolutely no dog in that fight with regard to education, and I believe public education is screwed up in all 50 states. Yes there are individual school districts which are fine, but even in free states there are too many moonbat libtards running schools with zero tolerance policies.
Now here is the kicker and the most difficult part to write: I am of a certain age where I have lived most of my life, it is doubtful if I will see the incoming crop of first graders graduate from high school. I have lived in some of the freest states or most firearms friendly states in the country (AZ, AK and GA} I have open carried, in fact when I lived in AZ CCW was not an option, only open carry for non LEOs. Personally, I'm just not into open carry so it doesn't really effect me,
I own a large and somewhat expensive gun safe. I would own one wherever I lived so storage isn't an issue with me, nor is transport as I have always secured any firearms unloaded in a locked case in my trunk, to me it is just a habit I acquired years ago, and any firearm I will carry secured on my person or in a state that allows carry in a glove box. I can carry a loaded firearm in my vehicle in NH BTW, something an ordinary NH resident can't do unless they have a permit. I have such a permit.
If you want a state in New England with the least firearms restrictions, move to VT. On the subject of states, you free enterprise people must be mighty upset that New Hampshire has a monopoly on the liquor business. Can't buy Jim Beam at the packie down the street. When you extoll the virtues of the Granite State and you buy all your booze in NH, you are condoning a state monopoly, Ah, yes but what about beer? I can buy beer at Tedeschi's less than a mile from my house.
The situation is always fluid and is subject to change. There are many reasons for people doing what they do, your mileage may very.
Now where surprisingly where Helpful and Pleasant Guy Hiltonizer and I would agree is that all states are inherently bad, some may be worse than others, NH is better than Mass in many, many ways but it is not utopia. Maybe if I were younger, starting out as shooter/collector it would be a different story...but I think it just goes to show you, you can't make general statements as to why people do what they do or live where they live, plain and simple
For a group that is supposedly into freedom of individual choice and MYOB, there is a lot of judgement going on. To those who are militant Ma$$hole ex-pats who are the most strident, I would only say that the mantra is awfully old, not too original and yeah...we get why you moved to your paradise. Just be careful up there because the way Ma$$holes are moving to your state, things can change...be very wary. Simple fact is that if you moved to NH to be free, then why didn't you move a state more free like Idaho or North Dakota?
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