I lived in Columbia for 6 years as a kid and love Eastern TN (go there for vacation every few years). Unfortunately, even East TN is too far from my aging parents (though not any further from my inlaws than we are today).Originally Posted by Sherman A. House DDS
Chris
Honestly it's very possible that may work out for us and I've had my eye on TN for a while now. I've always wanted to move more in the direction of Wyoming, Montana or Idaho, but I'm pretty sure my wife wants warmer winters, not colder ones. My family is all here in northern VA which wouldn't be too far a drive from TN and my former boss works at Vanderbilt. May need to see if I can shake the connections tree and see what opportunities arise.
I moved from a state with extremely strict gun laws to a place that pretty much hands them out with your new driver's license, but I know the political winds can change rapidly. If I try to predict where gun laws will go over the next decade, I end up with:
- Assault weapon/magazine bans will make it to the Supreme Court, which will decide 5-4 (or 6-3, depending on who picks RBG's replacement) that "assault weapons" and mags holding more than ten rounds are in common use, and as such fall under the Heller decision. Bans on those weapon types will be found unconstitutional, and the court will determine the standard of review is strict scrutiny. I don't think they will make any decisions regarding registration, storage requirements, etc. As a matter of fact, I think the courts will rule you cannot ban those items, but registration, mandatory training, and so on fit within the meaning of "well-regulated" in the 2nd. All of this will lead to...
- States like CA, NY, MA, NJ being forced to allow the ownership of magazine fed rifles, but they will institute background checks similar to what the ATF does for NFA, onerous storage requirements, and regular training such as membership in a shooting club or yearly state refreshers on safe gun handling.
- Nationally, I expect rifles like ARs, AKs, etc. to end up as part of the NFA. The only difference will be that States cannot ban their possession the way some ban NFA items now.
Less likely, but certainly possible after some of the events over the last few years:
- At some point, I expect some LEOs to get shot over the whole thing. The Bundy Ranch left a pretty deep impression on a lot of people. I was assigned to a multi-jurisdictional unit when that was going down, and I remember telling the ATF agents I was working with they were lucking the Bundy supporters didn't open up on them. I don't know if they will be so lucky next time, and I think a lot of people walked away from the experience with the impression the best way to fight the government is the ammo box - but who knows, I could be totally wrong.
On a side note, if we want this stuff to stop, we need to force the NRA to get more relevant. We need an NRA version of David Hogg without the condescension. I have a buddy from an eastern European country that experienced a legit genocide in the 90s. He was from the part of the country that was targeted, and he distinctly remembers soldiers/police from the prevailing government going door to door confiscating weapons before they tried to kill everyone off. He is only one of many people in this country with that type of story. Why isn't he on billboards and TV ads? For God's sake, his country hosted the winter olympics, and less than ten years later people were disarmed by gun control laws so they could be slaughtered. The NRA needs to start spending money telling stories like this instead of sending me stupid magazines.
And if they are going to keep sending the magazines, fine, but print a Spanish language one. I don't speak it, but a large percentage of the population does, and if the NRA doesn't want to reach out to them we're finished.
I think that’s a really, really good idea, @Tam.
Ignore Alien Orders
Things have gotten a bit thinner in the Arizona legislature post-midterms, as we already had two or three Republican state senators who consistently voted against most progressive gun bills and that was also usually enough to kill a bill. Some of you folks may remember Doug Ducey's failed proposal of a 'school safety plan' last year which I think would have gotten him recalled in earlier times (it's pretty much the same stuff that one state representative always tries to introduce every year anyhow). The AzCDL is anticipating that he'll try to push it again, especially his version of red-flag laws. If he doesn't try, the Bloomberg certainly will via petition, as our local groups have been predicting since the I-594 astroturf around 2014.
Here in NoVA, the NRA's home turf, there are a LOT of native Spanish speaking people. That they don't print their materials in Spanish is a major miss for them.
Chris
“Major miss” is being charitable. It is completely stupid and dooms the NRA to irrelevance. The problem is, they are going to take us with them. It wouldn’t shock me at all to find it has been suggested numerous times only to be shot down by a bunch of old school, stubborn nitwits.
That, and they need to be making a major outreach push to rural and suburban Democrats. Guns weren’t always a partisan issue and they don’t have to be now.
I can’t believe how myopic they are, it boggles the mind.
I know a number of left-leaning folks (more like traditional Democrat, not new-era socialist types) who are not anti-gun or anti-freedom. They have a different view on the role of government, but are more in line with us than they are against us. However, the NRA lumps them in with the gun grabbers, banners, and other enemies of freedom.
Chris
I might've considered upgrading my Life membership in the NRA to "Endowment" if it wasn't for the dissatisfaction with various shortcomings...both in insight / foresight, political stance and failure to run a tight ship.
They'll have to earn future contributions via effort and merit...not just because they like to paint themselves as defenders of America's freedom.
Choose wisely.
Last edited by blues; 01-05-2019 at 11:13 AM.
There's nothing civil about this war.
My wife’s from TX but most of her family no longer lives there, so no reason to move back. We love TN though. Illinois sucks for a lot of reasons...if they go for my rights TN is gonna look really nice.
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