Where to move?

[captain awesome]

wow yall have convinced me to move to Wyoming some day I was going to put my two cents in for AZ, if I were you I would avoid anywhere near phoenix. sure our gun laws are decent, but tax is lousy and it is HOT 6 months out of the year. northern AZ might be better

 

[nwilliams]

Prescott AZ is a great place to live, I lived there for a good part of a decade. Lots of great gun stores, good people, beautiful area, 5k feet up so not too hot in the summers and not too cold in the winters. You can ccw in AZ without a permit and lots of people there open carry.

The only downside of Prescott is that the economy kinda sucks there, at least it did when I last lived there which is why I moved. I wouldn't mind moving back but I don't think I will.

NM is a great place to live and very gun friendly with a strong economy. It's a gorgeous State and there is a lot to see and do, good people as well.

As much as I love the southwest I can see myself moving back to Maine eventually, the State I grew up in.

 

[BackCountry]

Each of the inter mountain western states have their pluses and minuses. I've lived in Colorado for most of my life. The last 20 years have seen an influx of East Infections and West Coast liberals that have really brought down the state. Denver and the Front Range cities are an abomination of liberalism and over population - as such I haven't been east of the divide in 10 years. We fight every year to keep our water on the west slope so we can grow our fruits, vegetables and hay to raise our cattle while the Front Rangers try to steal our resources so they can over populate and have lush green lawns in an arid climate. Sadly that is where the majority of the population is so we get the liberal disease infecting the state more with each election. These same people who moved away from the problems caused by the liberal nanny state have in turn brought it to our state. The Front Range Cities of Colorado are not very gun friendly but the rest of the state is. Colorado has been moving in the wrong direction for the last 20 years. There are definitely better places to relocate to.

Utah is a beautiful state but somewhat strange. Being a Mormon State (nothing wrong with that), the liqueur laws are strange. Birth control is looked down on and can be hard to find. Remember there are always Mormons in heaven waiting to be born. Don't get me wrong - I like Mormon values and spend a lot of time in Utah but I personally feel my freedoms infringed on in some ways in that state. I am not a drinker and at my age I am done having children but at the same time I want the choice to do as I wish. Many of the towns are tightly bound to the Mormon Church and if you are not a member you will always be an outsider. At least this is my impression having spent many years vacationing there.

Wyoming has lots of open space, is conservative and gun friendly. Hope you like the wind if you choose to live there.

Montana and Idaho would probably be top contenders for places to check out. Their only drawback is how far north they are. Not a lot of sun hours in the winters but the trade off is long days in the summer. Idaho has some very nice mountains and rivers with lots of outdoor activities. Montana is Big Sky Country (or Big Drive Country as I call it). There is lots of open space and you would want to locate to somewhere not too far from food and fuel.

 

[Pilgrim]

Don't move to Nevada, it is a barren, ugly state. There are miles and miles of open spaces without a soul to be seen. Most of Nevada has fewer then five people per square mile. You would get lonely out here.

I 'escaped' from CA in 2003 to move to Idaho. It is a nice state, firearms friendly, and relatively easy to get a CCW permit. The income tax was similar to CA's, property tax was rough, sales tax OK, vehicle registration was great.

ID does not have CA's Proposition 13 protection on property tax and assessment increases. A few years ago Kootenai County and Bonner County Sheriffs had to place deputies in the assessor's offices because property tax assessments were jumping 30-40% in a single year.

I currently live in NV. I recently married and the new wife couldn't wrap her arms around the idea of snow and more snow in northern ID. We moved to rural northeast NV (Elko County) where the winters are a bit milder.

NV is firearms friendly. It takes a bit more for a CCW permit from what I can gather. One has to take a class and shoot a qualification score to qualify.

NV has no income tax, a fairly moderate sales tax, and property tax seems ok. Vehicle registration includes a Government Services Tax which amounts to a personal property tax on the value of your motor vehicle. If you are a veteran, you get around a $95 a year exemption which can be applied to your real property tax or government services tax on your motor vehicle.

Elko County has a county range which handles rifles and pistols. Spring Creek has a skeet and trap range.

The major industry in Elko County is mining. If you are willing to work in the mines or work in businesses that support the mines, you have a job.

Pilgrim

 

[alquix]

I live in Reno, NV. It's a big(ish) city, and you can shoot 10-15 minutes away in the desert. or the Washoe County range. it's legal and you won't get hassled open-carrying a loaded firearm, and CCW permits are on a "Shall issue" basis just as long as you're not a felon.
You may also keep a loaded weapon concealed in your car legally (but it's nice to tell a cop of its existence if you get pulled over just as a courtesy to them.) Open carry here is worth it in itself to see the faces of Californians when you carry in the casinos.

Watch out for North Las Vegas though, they're very unfriendly on a city ordinance basis to guns (but North Las Vegas is an 8 hour drive away anyways)

 

[Stillwater]

Sadly that is where the majority of the population is so we get the liberal disease infecting the state more with each election. These same people who moved away from the problems caused by the liberal nanny state have in turn brought it to our state. The Front Range Cities of Colorado are not very gun friendly but the rest of the state is. Colorado has been moving in the wrong direction for the last 20 years. There are definitely better places to relocate to.

During the Westward Expansion, the easterners that had any good sense, did move west after Horace Greely said "Go West Young Man."

This westward movement of the eastern population emptied the east of everybody, EXCEPT the village idiots.

Now, after the west has been settled, the Buffalo are gone and the Indian problem has been dealt with, The eastern, liberal, nanny staters, are finally developing enough manly courage to move west.

And there-in, lies the problem, now being manifested. All of these new eastern immigrants are descendents of the dregs, that were to afraid to move west, during the Westward Expansion era. They have the same Entitlement, Nanny state mentality, that caused the good people to leave the east and venture into the west.

I've been wanting to post this reply for quiet some time. All of us Native born Westerners, in my case being Montana born, can handle any of the following negative posts with a chuckle.

How can we handle it so easy? It's simple, we know we're right.

Bill

 

[Evergreen]

Stillwater, let's build a wall.. :banghead:

Strangely enough some Eastern states have better gun laws then some western states. Doesn't Pennsylvania have like some of best gun laws in the country? I mean even in Texas you cannot open carry, but in Pennsylvania you can.

 

[JohnnyOrygun]

I will give Oregon one Thumb up, while the Willamette Valley areas (Portland south to Eugene) are pretty liberal, the rest of the state is pretty conservative. The biggest negative to Oregon gun laws is background checks at gun shows, but we are a shall issue state and open carry is legal, not sure I would try it Portland, but most of the rest of the state isn't a problem.

Weather, we have 4 seasons, mild wet winters as long as you stay away from the coast and the Willamette Valley which tend to be wetter, Southern Oregon is very nice, dry summers and mild winters. Where I live its about 1 1/2 hours to the mountains or the coast, lots of places to hunt, ride quads, and shoot.

Work wise Oregon sucks, too dependent on logging and the housing industry, the extreme environmentalist have almost killed off logging and we all know how the housing industry is. There are more jobs in the Portland area, but I wouldn't live in Portland... traffic sucks, Portland is weird and proud of it.

I really like Oregon, I have lived in Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Montana and California. Of course California is my LEAST favorite place to live and Oregon is my favorite, I wouldn't mind living in Arizona, but its rather hot and I am too fat to live in a hot place.. Montana is a great place and I would live there, but once read "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in Montana" and that was in Montana. I really liked Kalispell and Libby.

My .02, Good Luck!