Looking for somewhere to move to - need help

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.cheese.

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I have a bit of a problem.

I'm looking to go to grad school in about a year and a half (I'll be taking off a year after I graduate in a few months). Typically, where you go to grad school (law-school in particular) is where you end up living/working.

I am looking for a nice city, that has some charm and has some of the feel of Boston, Chicago, NYC, etc..... has a good grad school there, and also is gun-friendly.

I own 4 Glocks and about 40 mags some are hi-cap (20 15-round, 10 13-round, and a couple 30 rounders)

I also own two LMT AR-15's (.223) with 16" barrels and plenty of 30-round mags.

To top it off, I have about 8,000 rounds of premium HP ammo for my guns. (It's all just my SHTF gear).

I would need to be able to carry concealed as I carry regularly (not on school grounds of course though).

Any ideas as to where I should look? Obviously Chicago, NYC, San-Fran, and Boston are out. Beyond that I don't know much though.

I was looking at Seattle, but I've never been there. I'd need to see it. What other cities should I be looking at? Also, I don't necessarily have to live in the city for grad-school, but I'd want to eventually move there to work.

Thanks guys.
 
Your conditions make it a little tough

Here's my thoughts (first hand living). They have graduate schools, ambiance and are relatively gun friendly

Austin
Cincinnati
Denver
Charleston SC (no schools)

Seattle's a great city, but don't know about guns.
Portland is another beautiful city but is definitely filled with moonbats


Good luck!
 
DC of L @ MSU

Detroit College of Law @ Michigan State University. Michigan has shall-issue, and statutory "castle doctrine". All in all, Michigan is not too bad. Lansing/East Lansing/Okemos are nice areas. I earned my Ph.D. there in 1993. Awesome memories.

U of M Law School is excellent, but Ann Arbor is not gun-friendly.

Doc2005
 
Philadelphia.

Although PHL as a political entity is hostile to guns and their owners, they are constrained by state law, and by state constitution.

PHL boasts many fine schools, and furthermore, carry on college campus _might_ be prohibited by school policy, it is NOT specifically prohibited by _law_. PA statutes define schools as primary and secondary, and specifically does not include higher education.
 
By you title I would say you are getting a Masters in Economics?

Before knowing that I was going to say the University of Montana. Nice Campus. The dorms have gun safes on the first floor for you to store your guns. Range is CLOSE to Campus about 10 minute drive. Good Bars in town. Only problem is the Damn hippies. They don't really smell, but the dreads and stuff annoy me. Besides that its a pretty nice place.
 
I'd second Missoula, Montana if you want a law school. The town has most of the amenities of a large city with a much safer environment as far as crime goes.

If you want a good department of economics, Montana State University in Bozeman has a great free market econ department. Bozeman also has amenities beyond what you would expect for a town its size.

Montana is of course highly gun friendly.
 
I'd second the choice for Austin (or San Antonio or Dallas). Also, Salt Lake City would be good, and very gun friendly.
 
handgunlaw.us
packing.org

Print the maps of CCW states off handgunlaw.us. Any state that doesn't have concealed carry is immediately out. That leaves 30 some "shall issue" states (I think).

Next, look at laws for how AR-15s and regular capacity magazines are handled. Most "shall-issue" states have no trouble with them.

You should be able to compile a good list of cities from the remaining states using maps.google.com and google earth.


Of course, you could get your degree through online correspondence in the middle of Wyoming....

***

As for hippies, just open carry around them. They'll scatter and you don't have to be near them :)
 
Good luck... I think you might have to compromise somewhere along the way, but I think Portland or Seattle are the best options I've heard.
 
Economics is my undergraduate study.

Grad-school will be law-school and a masters in business (JD/MBA)

keep the suggestions coming. :)
 
Arizona

While it's a bit on the warm side (ok late july early august SUCKS!) Arizona is a great place. Plus if you survive the heat, no snow unless you want to drive a bit north.

It's a great state, Shall Issue. Castle Doctrine. No Capacity limits or Ammo requirements or limitations of purchases for either ammo or guns. We also have gun shows almost monthly at the state fair grounds.

ASU and UofA are both good schools. Like most academia very liberal but good schools. City wise you could go to ASU and live anywhere in Metro Phoenix and not have an issue carrying. Public Ranges are the norm as Chandler and the West Valley, plus Ben Avery's (G&F run range) along with several indoor ranges make Arizona a great choice.

Plus any recreation you could want, i.e. snow, beach, mountains, lakes, rivers, sand dunes, all of these are available and within a two-four hour drive.
 
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I'm a grad student at UW in Seattle. Pretty nice place, really. We've got Wade's Guns close by and a whole pile of other stores. Wade's is the best indoor range I've been to anywhere (not saying much), and it has a nice shop too.

We've also got a bunch of rifle ranges close by, and good hunting/outdoors/skiing/fishing etc etc. I got my first deer ever this last October.

And although our government is somewhat liberal, they're not so bad as the California or east coast types. Seattle has a decent gun culture, even among the liberals. CCW is shall issue and has been for much longer than most places. No full auto, and our sound supressor laws are stupid (can own, can't use, but only a midemeanor blah blah).

Come on out to Seattle, we need all the help we can get!
 
How about the University of Mississippi Law School in Oxford, MS. Awesome small town atmosphere, good school, pro-gun state, plenty of hunting/fishing opportunities nearby (Sardis, Enid, Grenada, and Arkabutla lakes all within a quick drive).
 
Seattle is a fairly gun-friendly city. Don't try to open carry though, because people will get freaked out, as its pretty much as liberal as you can get. The U-district in Seattle specifically is pretty seedy. I would recommend you carry wherever you are in the Udistrict at night. Other than that its alright as far as cities go. Being from Seattle and moving to the slightly more rural Olympia has made me a little jaded about any large city (I usually call them cesspools) in general.

Don't get me started on the quality of UW as a school. I'm an Evergreen student, so I can't tell you if you should or shouldn't go there. Thats something you need to work out for yourself.

JHP's, large caches of ammo, hi-cap mags, and pretty much all guns, bar Automatics and Supressors are legal here. CCW's are VERY easy to get. $65 total, including fingerprint fee AND lamination, gets you a CCW (in WA its actually a CCP, whatever) with an estimated delivery time of about three weeks. Everyone I know that has gotten one had theirs arrive within three days.

However if you don't have a CCP, the transportation of firearms laws are VERY strict and specific. I'm not sure if they're like that in other states, but in ours you can't even have an empty mag in your pistol that's locked in the trunk.

Although the only ranges I'm aware of are indoor. There's one in Tacoma (40-50 minute drive) one in Bellevue (20-30 minute drive) and one in Kent (30 minute drive.) Down here in Olympia (1 hr drive) we have some public legal-to-shoot places around here, but its quite a drive.

There's also gunshows aplenty. No Cabellas here, but we do have Sportsmans Warehouse, Walmart (duh), Big5, and very few other gunshops around, none of which I think are national chains. From what I've seen, firearms are generally more expensive in this region of the US than in central and southern states.

Hope this helps your decision!
 
Might wanna save your resources on the MBA. They've become dime a dozen and of dubious real world value, so employers aren't taking them that seriously these days.
 
I haven't heard what you expect the weather to be like. That will help narrow your search a good bit. Pretty much anywhere in the south is gun-friendly, but you probably don't have the "feel" of the large cities you mentioned. I haven't been to lots of the large cities in the country though. So, that last statement might be wrong.

It's a little ironic that three of the cities you'd like the "feel" of aren't gun-friendly and you have mostly disqualified them. I'm just trying to point out the following... Maybe you don't want to live in ANY city with the "feel" of those you mentioned. I say that because after you've established yourself and had a couple of rug-rats in about 10 years, you may be looking at your city becoming gun-unfriendly. It's something to think about.

The area with the best scenery (and is my favorite to visit) is in the Rocky Mountains. So, I vote for somewhere out that way.

Good luck.
 
If, as others have speculated, you are going to work toward an MBA, I would reconsider. My son has a BBA from Texas A&M (ranked among the top 20 in the nation for BBAs), but instead of working on an MBA, he has just finished his CFA--Chartered Financial Analyst. Don't know if you're familiar with this program, but it's all self-study based on a syllabus and a big pile of books issued by the people who run the program. You take one test a year (total of three) and they are very tough according to my son (who graduated Magna Cum Laude from A&M) and, when (if?) you pass all three, you are a CFA. According to my son, most employers think more highly of the CFA than of an MBA.

Just a thought, but you could be earning money on the job, working on your CFA, and enjoying a gun-friendly location all at the same time.


Tequila Jake
 
News Shooter, Denver has an AWB ... the rest of the state is fine (for now, our new Democrat governor is the former DA for Denver and a gun grabbing ...).
 
Don't be so sure

I work with a few companies and government agencies in the course of my full time job, most of the companies are fortune 100, and an MBA is highly thought of, and very respected. The problem isnt the MBA, its that companies are simply paying less for degrees than they used to because there are more people looking for jobs who have them. However, if you think an MBA is not worth much, consider a BA/BS, that is now the equivalent of what a high school degree used to be in most companies, so while an MBA may not get you the high salary it used to (although with some good experience it will), it will take you places that a BA/BS will not. In the large companies I work with you have no hopes of being a mid-high level employee or manager without an MBA.

At any rate, more school never hurts, however most companies now will pay for you to get it! So you may want to look for a company that will pay for your school in an area you want to live, regardless I second Pennsylvania, I believe there are more schools in PA than any other state if I recall correctly. The gun rights in PA are some of the most lenient in the country.
 
I hate to buck the trend, but, don't go to grad school based on the locale where the school is. Go to the best school you can get in and afford. After graduation, THEN, move to where you want to go. If nothing else, going to school in a crappy northeast city will motivate you to finish up and move on to where it's decent.

That said, I'll plug for my alma maters, University of Florida (Gainesville, FL) or University of Tennessee (Knoxville, TN). UF is a better academic school (imo) but both are in the south, are in gun-friendly states, and neither Tennessee nor Florida have state income taxes!
 
Ill be the first to point out Buffalo, NY. NY isnt as horrendously anti-gun as some paint it as. Also, we have quite a few good universities for both law/MBA. A good friend of mine who I served with in the Marine Corps is a law student at the University of Buffalo.

Its the most rural/suburban-feeling city you will probably find. PM me if you want to talk to someone who knows more about the law/MBA programs here than I do.
 
I'd have to suggest University of Puget Sound for grad school. Tacoma, WA. While the police chief isn't anti gun, he's leaning... But the laws allow us to enjoy our hobby. If you don't end up living in the city, then the county Sheriff's office is where you get the CWP. Once you find out that you like the Tacoma/Seattle area, there's plenty of work for an attorney. And there's always the Bremerton gun club, Tacoma Gun club, other retail stores with indoor ranges. Then as you establish I'd suggest a slight move to the north to Bellingham. The current county Sheriff is very friendly to our local gun club.

Sure it rains a bit here. But some of the best skiing can be had at the mountain with the most snowfall in the states. Bear hunting if you're inclinded too.. If you like water or hiking/mountain sports, the choices are endless. Our gun club allows just about any discipline.

There's nothing 'like' NYC or Boston. Each of these coastal city's has it's own flavor. Seattle is an interesting mix that makes it unique. Grad School at UW? Sure. Why not?

-Steve
 
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