What is Gun ownership like in your state?

Status
Not open for further replies.
CapnMac said:
Small point of order. The "Mason-Dixon line" was a surveyed line around which a number of Pennsylvania counties were aligned. Why that morphed into a shorthand for the divide between "northern" and "southern" States is lost to history.

Texas is not as free as it could be; but freer than a number of places. About on par with Ohio in many ways. The fact that 2/3 of the State's population lives in just two giant metro areas means that many live far, far away from the strictures of municipal government, and are "freer" than the strict rule of law proscribes.
Click to expand...
I use it more as a geographical benchmark more than a “north vs south” because it is roughly the point at which climate changes the further you move North or South of it.
 
Robbins290 already spoke up for ME, but since the OP mentioned it specifically, I'll add a few points.

The key is to not broad brush the "northern" New England states with the rest. ME, NH and VT arguably form three state region that is (IMHO) much more 2A friendly than most give credit for.
  • All three have open carry without permit.
  • All three have concealed carry without permit.
  • ME and NH also have shall issue, and these permits allow some advantages, like carrying in National Parks (which follow the host state permit laws).
  • VT gets a black mark for not issuing CCW permits, which is banal at best as they have never had laws banning concealed carry, so why bother with permits for something that has never been banned.
  • All three allow NFA items.
  • All three have state pre-emption that keeps the liberal cities in line.
  • All three are pretty rural and have strong hunting traditions.
  • ME & NH have castle doctrine. And while VT does not, there is a strong judicial president that people have no duty to retreat in their homes.
  • NH is one of the most libertarian minded states in the union, with no state income tax and no sales tax. They basically don't want big gub'ment so they starve it.
  • Before being ousted on term limits, ME had in Paul LePage an awesome governor, and he may come back next go around.
  • While none have stand your ground, you will be very hard pressed to dig up a self-defense shooting where the victim was charged.
The biggest problem the northern New England states have wrt. to 2A is that they have become refuges for people fleeing MA. The problem here is that they bring their MA mindset with them and wind up voting for the same types of people and policies that made MA intolerable to them in the first place.
 
The actual laws of each state are readily available, complete with no misinformation that is possible (or likely, perhaps) in forum posts. That being the case, there's no need for me to repeat what the laws are in my state.

What I can do is talk a bit about the firearms/citizen's rights culture, and that, in my experience, varies more from region to region within a state than it does from state to state. In my area of Idaho, gun ownership is extremely common, to the point of being very close to universal. If you walk around town and into a couple stores for a half hour, you're almost guaranteed to see at least a couple people open carrying handguns. It's common to see 12-13 year old kids carrying fixed blade hunting knives in the public library or in a store. The county sheriff has explicitly stated that he will not enforce any more Federal firearms laws (unsure, at this time, as to his stance on current 2A infringements, like NFA items).

The area I came from in Ohio is relatively 2A friendly, comparatively speaking. Concealed carry is very common, (I was an instructor), open carry can be observed on rare occasions with few paying much attention to it and kids walking along the side of the road carrying rifles or shotguns headed to their hunting area don't draw a second glance.

So, that area of Ohio could be dropped into many parts of Idaho and in many ways fit in better than certain parts of Idaho do, like Boise (from what I hear). Other parts of Ohio, like Cleveland or Columbus, would fit in just fine with the stereotype of NYC.
 
bearcreek said:
The actual laws of each state are readily available, complete with no misinformation that is possible (or likely, perhaps) in forum posts. That being the case, there's no need for me to repeat what the laws are in my state.
Click to expand...

True. But Sometimes the laws don’t indicate what the situation is actually like. You know?
 
I have owned guns here in New York since the 60s and although we have some limiting laws, I don't think it is a bad as many want to say it is. If you want a full featured AR, you need to have had it before 2014 and registered in by the end of 2014 for it to be legal and you are limited to magazines with no more than 10 round capacity. There are modified ARs that are NYS compliant. No Supressors, but that doesn't both me. Other than that I have had full concealed weapons permits in the State and New York City since 1971. Held an FFL here with a Class III License and a Manufacturers license for 36 years.

Bob
 
Last edited:
Illinois here.
No supressors , they're not legal at all.
Depending on the county everything else is almost normal. FOID card required to buy guns and ammo . private sales are ok but you got to do a FOID card check on the state police site and record the reference number given when the check was verified. In cook County (chicago) there are various infringements in place but I don't know anyone that can keep them straight. I can't even get a good answer as to mag capacity for Chicago so I always make sure I've got less than 10 when I go to one of the deadliest city's on earth, charming.
 
The Gunshine State is very permissive in the areas you want to hear about. Much more so than many other states. There are a couple of quirky rules. 1 being the 5rd mag limit on semi autos for hunting- not really a big deal for hunting, more of a pain in the butt due to having to acquire a weird magazine or modify a standard one to stay compliant if you want to hunt with a MILSURP type semi. All of those rifles normally hold more than 5. Suppressors are OK for hunting here.
 
Illinois became a lot worse when our current excuse for a Governor took office. Especially if you are a dealer or just applying for a FOID card renewal. Mine took 7 months. (It is supposed to take less than 90 days ) If you are applying for the first time, or if you are applying (God forbid! ) for a CCW..... well, you can expect over a years wait. There are people that are going on TWO years for their CCW. There is no relief from writing to your congressman or senator, either state or national, because they're almost always a gun hating Democrat. The State Police hate the fact that THEY are having to deal with this. And they hated it even more when the state raided $25,000,000 from the kitty used to fund the Cards and CCWs approval processes and spent it elsewhere.

Dealers are particularly screwed, due to additional licenses, fees, and security regulations imposed on them.

But HEY! There's always the local pot dispensary, where you can buy some heathen devil weed to ease the pain and rot your brain. :confused:
 
Ohio, still a "free" state: no waiting period before purchase, no magazine capacity restrictions, no limit on the number of guns that can be bought at any one time, no "assault rifle" constraints, no suppressers suppressed and is a "shall" issue state when it comes to carrying a concealed weapon (albeit, a license to carry concealed is predicated on passing a basic training regimen). Much of this Second Amendment guaranteed freedom can be attributed to a predominately Republican Ohio state legislature. But, as President Reagan warned, liberty is only one generational election away (as evidenced in our last presidential election). Be ever vigilant no matter how "free" the state you live in is at the present time.
 
Last edited:
daniel craig said:
True. But Sometimes the laws don’t indicate what the situation is actually like. You know?
Click to expand...
I do. That's why I went ahead to describe what I know of the culture where I've lived. No point in just repeating what the laws are in a given state. Anyone with an internet connection can easily look that up in minutes. Harder to look up the general attitudes of the people in a given area. As I pointed out though, that's not really a state thing as much as it is regional. The laws can give you a rough idea of how the majority of people in a given state think on a certain subject but in many cases there is a significant minority of people in certain regions of some states whose opinions differ dramatically.

So my point, in a nutshell, is that if you want to know about firearms laws, you can get concrete answers state by state. If you want to know about people's attitudes, in general, towards firearms/weapons/citizen freedoms, you have to narrow the question down more by region.
 
Massachusetts here ...... They surely don't make it easy to own guns here , and not to say that I think it should be. I do think that its absolute nonsense that we have a magazine capacity limit though , and we also can't have any AR platform guns unless they are pre ban , or have a fixed magazine. This state also has a compliance list , and because of their very long list of tests they want done for guns to be on that list , many of companies aren't interested in it because they don't have to perform those same tests to sell in the majority of other states. You can't blame the manufacturers for not wanting to spend the money either. I'm fortunate because the shop I deal with will let me have any make or model shipped to his shop as long as it doesn't exceed the capacity limit , he doesn't care if the gun itself is on the list , because really all that list means is that dealers can't have those particular guns on their shelves for sale , it doesn't mean that residents can't own them.
 
What's so bad? Certainly not Florida!

Got very used to sitting at my favorite Tiki bar, watching the scenery, ordering ammo or a gun, sipping bourbon and gingerale.

Then the multi-bladed rotary airflow unit of life got impacted with excreta of unknown origin.....

All that fun'll be back though!
 
Well... Virginia was a very good state. We still have no waiting period or magazine capacity restrictions...yet. I don't know about hunting with suppressors.

Now the liberals are running out of Maryland and DC and into Virginia. They want to change the laws to be like the states the liberals have ruined.We now have a Governor and State Congress that are trying to limit our 2nd Amendment rights.

My wife and I are a few years away from retirement and looking to go to a more friendly 2nd amendment state. I will be watching this thread pretty close.
 
Wisconsin was next to last when it came to legal CWC, even tho OC was legal for many years. That said, I doubt if there are many, if any state, in the lower 48, that has a deeper entrenched hunting sentiment/tradition and has a higher percentage of residents that participate. Wisconsin is easily the top producer of B&C Whitetail entries in the nation. We kill about 450,000 deer every year here. Wisconsinites like their guns....and always have. Maybe it because of this or the fact that open carry was the only legal option for SD for many years, but open carry is very seldom met with a negative reaction when used appropriately. Talking guns is open and without fear of reprisal or divisiveness. We even have State Championship Sporting Clays competition at the High School level. We do tend to have a significant number of "Fudds" tho.
 
daniel craig said:
I mostly want to hear from people east of the Rockies (or in the Rockies) and north of the Mason-Dixon.

Nobody ever seems to talk about Maine when it comes to gun culture nor really the Dakotas.

So ladies, gents and others, let’s hear from ya.

I should add: I’m mostly talking long guns because I don’t carry a pistol much anymore outside of work.

Let me edit:

Things I’m concerned about: suppressor use in hunting, Military style Rifle ownership/feature regulation, mag capacities, free and public shooting areas etc

In Pennsylvania our governor really doesn't want to legitimize the use of AR's for hunting - there is more to it but that it is the bottom line right now. Any size magazine is OK for now but keep your eyes on Washington. I do not know why anyone would need to use suppressors for hunting but that is another thread. I do not know PA's position on that. In PA put on an AR whatever you like - all the toys are good.

Things I don’t care about:

Open or concealed carrying (ownership is enough for me) background checks, private transactions without background checks etc.
Click to expand...

My response underlined above. Thanks.
 
Mainer here,
Gun laws are actually pretty decent here as we are now a Constitutional carry state as well as shall issue with no restrictions on types of guns or magazines. There are certain cities and towns which are fervently blue, but are limited in their gun regulations as they can't override state law, but it's not to say they haven't tried. Maine has its flaws but is a relatively free state, but the question is, for how much longer?
 
TrickyDick said:
Mainer here,
Gun laws are actually pretty decent here as we are now a Constitutional carry state as well as shall issue with no restrictions on types of guns or magazines. There are certain cities and towns which are fervently blue, but are limited in their gun regulations as they can't override state law, but it's not to say they haven't tried. Maine has its flaws but is a relatively free state, but the question is, for how much longer?
Click to expand...

I am just happy mills left the background checks alone. I thought she was going to go full blown with gun control.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

stchman
  • Locked
Europeans and Australians interest in USA gun ownership.
2 3 4
Replies
82
Views
7K
mungojerry
M
Kentucky_Rifleman
  • Locked
The most (and least) armed states in the union (Daily Beast)
2 3
Replies
61
Views
3K
KodiakBeer
K
M
  • Locked
Gun ownership and self-defense for those who are denied by 4473
Replies
10
Views
1K
rbernie
rbernie
H
  • Locked
Can you state the argument for Gun Control?
Replies
2
Views
369
GEM
G
R
  • Locked
According to the VPC, gun ownership is dropping...
2
Replies
40
Views
2K
eidsvolling
E
Back
Top