I've been there with the scraping by... it's tough... but I still see more options.
As to the personalizing... yeah, it's gone too far on both sides and I have said a bit I shouldn't have. It's natural.
I really don't see it as a desire to control tenants though. I see it as a desire to understand what can really go on so you can make informed decisions.
A final note and then I'll bow out...
You really can sign away your rights... take that as a given. You can sell or lease your ownership rights to a property. You can waive your 5A rights when talking to cops. You can agree to restrictions of your 1a rights as part of a lawsuit settlement "gag order". When you sign them away, or sell them, the simple act of doing what you agreed not to do does
not "restore" that right to you. You may have a gun but you still don't really have the right any more. What's the difference?
If you still had the right then exercising it wouldn't jepordize your financial future.
If you settle a lawsuit with someone and the settlement terms say they pay you money and you shut up about what happend there really isn't anything stopping you from telling your friends, writing about it, and so on. You may not be caught and you may get the money from the settlement.... but you didn't have a right to talk and if it is found out by the wrong parties you will be penalized for doing something you had no right to do.
If you didn't give up that right, didn't agree to be gagged, you have a right to speak. You can do exactly the same amount of talking in either case but if you have the right to speak you aren't risking your financial future to say what's on your mind.
Same is true with guns and leases.
I have a right to have firearms in my apartment. I checked the lease, I checked the laws, I did some research to know the limits and restrictions, and I considered my beliefs when I made my choice of where and how to live. I can exercise that right without fear of eviction, arrest, or other penalty. I can defend myself in my home without the landlord coming around and throwing me out.
I don't have a right to stop taking out my garbage. My lease actually says that I must take out the garbage at least once a week and failing to honor that part of my lease could get me evicted. You know what? Nobody is checking... and in fact I've let my garbage go two whole weeks (it was just paper) without any problems. I did it but I didn't really have a right to do it... I just got away with it... and the fact that I got away with it doesn't give me the right to keep doing it. I willingly gave up that right because frankly it doesn't matter to me one way or the other... I want to take my garbage out more than once a week anyway. It was a right, like the right to my rent money, that I was willing to give up in exchange for a place to live.
I just don't think it is smart to ignore your word like that as a policy. If you sign the lease you HAVE given up your right even if you exercise it anyway. You shouldn't have done that. If you intend to do that you certainly shouldn't say so because that indicates bad faith and signing a contract in bad faith is, well, bad.
To me... I'd rather live in a tent or a busted down trailer that was really my home with all the attendant rights than sign a lease that gives those rights away. I'm willing to pay for that decision by lowering my quality of life if I can't afford to pay for it by increasing the rent I pay... and I pay it because I really want the right, not just to do what I could do if I had the right.
What others do isn't really my lookout... but there are real reasons for not paying rent to antis and letting them strip your rights away even if you have no intention of giving up your guns. There is a real reason for discouraging others from giving up their rights. I don't see any real reason to support the idea of anti-gun leases at all... and I can't see signing one as anything but supporting it.
But that's just me.