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Western MA vs Central MA vs Eastern/ South Shore MA
- Thread starter 2A_Swayze
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D
Deleted member 67409
You're forgetting Plymouth and Norfolk counties. They're different from Suffolk County. If I had to move into Mass, I'd move to Cahvuh. Cranberries, Cahvuh Sportsmen's, and Old Colony.
Depends on what you're talking about. Part of it is west of 95/93 etc the gun club dues cost 1/4 to half as much as they do east, and less of them aren't laden up with fudd
rules, etc. This changes the complexion lots of things. Although the number of gun shops drops, because there's way less $$$$$ on the front end.
-Mike
D
Deleted member 67409
To answer your question:
First, while Western Mass is more rural, Western Mass is more liberal. Especially in the Pioneer Valley because of cities like Northampton and Springfield. Those people obviously aren't owning guns and organizing competitions. Western Mass is more crunchy granola. Eastern Mass is more suburban, and thus, wealthier, and more amenable for shooters who want gun clubs and competitive shooting.
Second, population differences. Eastern Mass including and east of Worcester has a denser and larger population. There's more gun owners. Meaning more clubs, more activities. More people = more demand for goods like guns and services like clubs and competitions. Western Mass is pretty sparse.
Third, there's a lot of cross-border pollination between southern NH and Mass. Southern VT doesn't have as strong of a competition shooting culture as southern NH does.
Gun owners are a percentage of the population. The bigger the population, the more gun owners. Simple math.
D
Deleted member 67409
Western Mass has never been conservative. Calvin Coolidge, back when he was a Northampton town and state politician, was a Progressive Republican in favor of Women's Rights and direct election of US senators. Western Mass isn't a direct comparison to say Wyoming or Kentucky. Parts of it are, but the Connecticut River Valley outvotes any rural conservatism.
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Not sure what you're seeing but I live in the mountains west of 91 and I hear guns going off in the distance pretty much every day, last shot taken was about 4 hours ago at dusk. Probably 1/5 of the people I know have guns. Clubs aren't really a thing around here because we all have enough land or know someone with enough land, or some just go find high tension lines and party. Outside of northampton and amherst there are still plenty of americans around.
Few years ago there was a map showing how many ltcs per town all over mass there was, w.mass was pretty heavily armed actually. Found an article about it but that map seems to be gone. In which communities are the most people licensed to carry?
"Twenty-nine Massachusetts communities have a Class A license rate of over 20 percent. When plotted on a map, many of those are in the western half of the state."
Few years ago there was a map showing how many ltcs per town all over mass there was, w.mass was pretty heavily armed actually. Found an article about it but that map seems to be gone. In which communities are the most people licensed to carry?
"Twenty-nine Massachusetts communities have a Class A license rate of over 20 percent. When plotted on a map, many of those are in the western half of the state."
Currently live in Springfield, when I drive through the mountains on occasions I defiantly get a totally different vibe. What sparked my question was when looking at the used gun market Central and East MA have way better firearm listings, and Gun shops are less skittish when conducting lawful business operations.
Not much of a question to be honest. Berkshires/western Ma is rural and not as liberal as the Boston area. More hunters/outdoorsman/gun culture. I've recently moved to the North Shore and even 7 miles north of Boston things are clearly MUCH better.
I think the firearms community in MA is actually probably strongest in central MA which I would define as west of 495 to the eastern parts of the Pioneer Valley. Excluding Worcester itself, Central MA is probably the most conservative part of the state. The "North Woods" have a lot of gun people.
Just my opinion. Others may disagree.
Just my opinion. Others may disagree.
Wickedcoolname
NES Member
I'm trying to think of something that sounds more annoying than country music but nothing comes to mind. Maybe a cat falling down a flight of stairs, or a bag of tin cans in a wood chipper. Actually, I'd take both of those versus country music!
smokey-seven
NES Member
I used to hunt Hubbardston. There was a hole in the wall breakfast joint on the way into town off of ret2. The owner/cook wore a SEAL cap. The walls were decorated with a number of things that made me smile. The one right in front of your face when you walked in was, "If you are a Democrat, get the F&^K out! It sorta set the tone for the place. Central MA is cool!
Mark from MA
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I live in North Central. Totally agree. We are close to NH and red conservative in most cases.
Look at our reps and away from Worcester youll see most of them are R. And if not they are a conservative D.
Western MA around Pioneer valley is polluted with people from big liberal colleges. The Berkshires just has old hippies, trust fund loonies and a smattering of NY and CT city 2nd homeowners. It is way more liberal.
The eastern part of the state is just overrun with city people, old money, old kennedy, and college libs, and workers of liberal boston companies.
I think there is parts of the north and south shore that are in line with central ma once you get north and south of boston.
Mark from MA
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Old farm towns like this are still red. They are slowly being polluted by libs who move in from cities. Still very red now though.
People here arent used to help from anyone. Most have land, a well, a septic system, and get very little other than a school and a plowed road from the government. When shit hits the fan like the big snow we get and the ice storm in 2009 where we were out of power for 10 days in December. We roll with it. The govt isnt here helping us. And we dont want it there either.
We want taxes low, and want to be left alone.
Mark from MA
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Many people ive talked to the live around 128/495 belt have never travelled that 45 minute drive to Worcester and think its somewhere in the Berkshires or something.
In their little world MA is Boston coast and the western end ends at 495. Its pretty amazing how geographically challenged these people from the east are. Its almost like they never leave their town. They most certainly are tied up in their own little world.
WTF. Im a country bumpkin from a town in North Central and have probably set foot or driven by almost every town in this state. I dont get how you havent ever looked at a map of the state you live in and can be so far off.
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rickflst
NES Member
I live in Western MA. 61% of my town voted for Trump. We also have a high LTC percentage. If I recall correctly Florida, MA has the highest percentage of LTCs and is also Western MA. The gun club I belong to and am an RSO at has each year over 1000 members. Lots of guns are in Western MA.
D
Deleted member 67409
Here's the difference between Eastern and Western Mass:
Let's say every resident of Florida, Mass, has a gun. One gun per person. That's 752 guns per the 2010 Census. Compare that to Newton. Newton has an estimated 88,904 residents. If only 1% of the people in Newton owned one gun, that'd be 889.04 guns. Round that down to 889 guns. Still 137 more guns than if everyone in Florida owned one gun.
Florida actually has something like a 26% LTC-holder rate, although that doesn't include FIDs. We also don't know how many guns per person there are. The state average is something like 10% of the population of each town has a LTC. So 26% of people in Florida is 195.52, round up to 196, people. Boston has the most LTCs out of any municipality in Mass as of 2017, with 8,388.
Western and Central Mass have higher percentages of gun ownership, but smaller overall numbers of gun owners. Less gun owners = less supply and demand for guns for sale and number of clubs with active competition calendars.
In which communities are the most people licensed to carry?
Taunton rifle club in eastern Ma Taunton Ma has over 4000 members now. When I was a member there it was like low 3000 members and it was crazy busy at the out door range on the weekends, and to be honest it was so busy that I left the club and went to another club. There were other reasons for leaving also, but I’m not gonna say. It’s a people thing? You know.
I’ve fond this thread interesting to read and hear how things are just so different in our messed up state. The cities population control our rights it seems. Those people don’t even know their own rights and that’s why they’ve given them up without a thought otherwise.
I just can’t fathom why western western Ma doesn’t have too many gunshops or inventory to choose from? Crazy??
The states should have an electoral college so our voice is heard equally statewide. And I’m not saying it would help much, but it is possible?
D
Deleted member 67409
Before the 1930s-60s, some states in New England like RI and VT had per-town state senators, which would be similar to what you're thinking. For example, RI has 38 state senators and 39 towns. The number of senators isn't a coincidence.
D
Deleted member 67409
Its economics and economies of scale.
Let's say you want to open up a brick and mortar gun shop in Middlesex County. Before you open up a gun shop, you're going to need a bank loan. The bank's going to want a feasibility study done to ensure that handing you thousands of dollars isn't going to be pissing money down the drain. Fortunately, NSSF has a program for this. The report includes information about demographics in the area of the shooting community, currently-existing competitors, what a good inventory would be, a suggestion for how big the store should be, and a bunch of other information:
Market Viability Consultation Service • NSSF
Now, if you do this in Middlesex County, you've got a number of advantages going for you:
*Highway access - if you're right off of 495 and 2 or 93 and 128, you're going to get more people in the area
*Raw number of gun owners - see post no. 23, then multiply by how many towns you can effectively serve in the area
*People in Eastern Mass earn more and spend more - seriously, crunch some numbers about salaries in Boston and Cambridge versus Springfield and Pittsfield
*A very plugged-in, connected shooting community - a shop could create a NES handle and have how many new customers in a few hours?
*Other gun store owners in the area could act as mentors and provide a sounding board (or competition to undercut)
Now take the same business model and put it in Monroe, Mass, population 121:
*There's no interstate or state highway in the town - no traffic
*While you have a higher percentage of gun owners, there's a far smaller population of them - again, see post no. 23
*People in NW Mass aren't earning that much - less income means less fun money, rural poverty is a real thing in Western Mass and between the mortgage and more guns, which gets priority (well, bad example, but assume a rational consumer)
*Western Mass sort of does its own thing culturally - Western Mass is its own area and has its own media and Eastern M*ssholes don't really go out west often
*Fewer already-existing shops
Something else to consider is just Mass being Mass. When I lived in NH, about every decent sized town with a population over 1000 had at least one home FFL. Home FFLs are less common in Mass. Besides, are enough people doing online transfers to make such a business viable in say Berkshire County? Probably not considering many online dealers flat out won't do business with Mass customers. If someone in Mass has a C&R, they don't need you for C&R purchases. Plus Mass has the handgun roster so that complicates handgun buying online. And finally, no new AR lowers, so a FFL can't skim a 25% profit margin off of doing transfers for $100 (or cheaper) lowers coming in from online.
AFVet
NES Member
I was born and raised in North Central, grew up shooting from the time my Dad got me a Marlin bolt action as a kid. Had to walk home from a skeet shoot once because my brother never showed up to pick me up, carrying a 20 gauge pump, got lots of looks but never got stopped or questioned or harassed all the way home. Just sore feet and legs. Could hunt pheasant less than a mile from my house. I worked for GOAL one time during an election and a widowed woman told me "that she didn't own any guns but had no problem with other people having theirs" that was the Central Mass I remember with a smile.
Little more restrictive here on the south shore vs central and western mass.
