"Why don't you just leave?"

[chasfm11]

Back on topic, I listened to the radio show in the OP. I was encouraged to hear that they have a court case in NJ that they think will go all the way to SCOTUS and, hopefully, resolve the May Issue situation in NJ.

For those that don't want to plow through all of the radio commercials in the link, the net of the case is that they have a group of people who have applied for CCWs and been turned down. The one that really made me sick was a guy who had been accidentally kidnapped ( the kidnappers got the wrong guy), had escaped from them twice and only half of the group was caught. He applied for a CCW but a judge denied it saying that he wasn't in any real danger. The kidnappers wanted to take him out because he can identify them. Those bringing the suit are trying to show that the applications for CCW are treated in an arbitrary and capricious way and the cases like this guy are proof.

NJ is a real problem because the bad policies go much deeper than gun licensing. It is one of a couple of States where the public cannot safely pump their own gas and paid attendants have to do it. Do you realize how unsafe we are in Texas - with all of these concealed handgun licensees running around pumping their own gas?? I guess I don't understand how we can sleep at night with all of the worry.

When I moved my family to Texas, we arrived in a yellow rental truck towing a bright red sailboat. Our first stop was a marina on Lake Grapevine. We drew an immediate crowd and were out on the lake racing our boat the next Sunday. It was like we inherited an instant family as soon as the boat was in the water. It made all the difference in the world because our kids met the kids of sailing families and we got all of the help that we needed finding our way around. We were fortunate to have already bought a house and were only in Embassy Suites for a couple of days until we could go to closing and get our furniture moved in. We had been in 4 houses in 10 years and the move to Texas was the easiest by far. There is a lot to be said about Texas hospitality.

[seamusTX]

These cases in the Northeast are important. If a license denial case can get up to the Supreme Court in the right hands, they might be able to get a ruling that these schemes are unconstitutional always and everywhere.

Although 48 states allow concealed carry in public in some form, maybe 8 of them are so restrictive that it's a cruel joke. And these states (such as New York and California) comprise a large fraction of the population.

- Jim

[Oldgringo]

BAH HUMBUG! Texas stinks, everybody stay where you are, you won't like it here.

Where's the nearest road to NY or California?

[surprise_i'm_armed]

Here's another case of Mass. PC (political correctness) run amuck:

The symbol of the University of Massachusetts is a lone Minuteman of the
Revolutionary era, holding onto a long musket. The UMass athletes are known
as "The Minutemen".

Well, the largest UMass campus is in Amherst is in western Mass. and is kind of a
hippy/dippy white tower of academia, unlike the more reality-based city folk near Boston.

Some years ago it was proposed by some anti's that the musket should be removed
from the Minuteman's hands in all logos/artwork because "it was too militaristic".

The proposal went nowhere, thank goodness.

Keep eating your tofu children. :-)

SIA

[seamusTX]

Yeah, if you showed up at Bunker Hill or any other famous site of the Revolutionary War with a rifle, other than at a approved re-enactment, you would be in a heap of trouble.

- Jim

[bnc]

BAH HUMBUG! Texas stinks, everybody stay where you are, you won't like it here.

Where's the nearest road to NY or California?

It's hot here and we have fire ants too!

[Pawpaw]

BAH HUMBUG! Texas stinks, everybody stay where you are, you won't like it here.

Where's the nearest road to NY or California?

It's hot here and we have fire ants too!

...and lots of people are running around with GUNS!!!

[OldCurlyWolf]

Jim, when we moved our family here in 2006 from California, we had it only slightly better. For one thing, I moved with my job, so money was not so much of an issue. (The company owner hung himself 18 months later, leaving me without that job, but that's another story...) Another advantage we had was that we knew the 3 other people and their families who moved with the company. But we all left our extended families behind. And for 3 of the 4 employees who moved with the company, we sold homes in California at a handsome profit and were able to establish ourselves here.

But despite those advantages, and despite our strong desire to move here, it was still a very difficult process. I spent the first two months living in a hotel room alone down in Dallas. Then I rented an apartment for my family and me in Grapevine, pending finding a home to buy. I lived in the apartment alone for a month until the school year was over for our son and I could move my wife and son out here. We lived in that apartment for about another month until we bought our house.

But during this time, we knew nobody else, and we had not yet developed a network of friends. Once we found a good church, all of that changed. But it was a tough few months. My wife's parents both died here not too long after we moved here. My remaining family are all still back in California, and I miss them a lot.

I don't know if the risks were as severe as yours were, but they were plentiful and between April 2006 and April 2009, we:

1. Moved me to Texas on 04/16/06.

2. Moved my wife and son to Texas on 06/24/06.

3. Bought a home on 07/27/06.

4. Moved my in-laws to Texas in 02/07.

5. Lost my father in law to lung cancer on 09/26/07.

6. Lost my employer to suicide on 09/29/07.

7. Lost my job on 11/15/07

8. Supported my mother in law through mastectomies and radiation treatment for breast cancer, starting after Thanksgiving of '07.

9. Started a new business on 05/01/08.

10. Lost my mother in law to metastasized breast cancer on 04/09/09.

And in between those events, we had 3 pets put to sleep.

Life is hard. Life goes on. God is good.

Not to belittle your hardships, especially with losing both inlaws to cancer.
But to many of us moving is not a big thing.

I went to 16 separate school systems in 4 states by the time I finished the 7th grade.

I drove to Wyoming from Oklahoma to work the day after I got my driver's license and 2 days after my 16th birthday.

The next year I drove to Montana to work.

In 1974 I packed up everything my wife and I owned and moved to Baytown Texas from Oklahoma. I lived and worked in that area for 16 of the next 20 years.

Between February 1987 and April 1991 I worked on the East and West Coasts during that time I spent Feb 87 through July 87 alone. Later I spent from July 1990 to April 1991 working alone, 2000 miles from home.

A fellow once asked what it was like where I grew up. My answer was: You get tough, you leave or you die. I was grown before I left.

Since then I have often worked away from home for months and years at a time. I learned long ago. You do what it takes to take care of your family.

I guess that it depends on your upbringing. Mine was one of independence and doing what was necessary.

[sjfcontrol]

At lunch today a co-worker from Austin expressed his concern that the influx of people from California with very liberal politics might poison the state (and he's not a gun guy, so he wasn't talking about RKBA).

There is also an influx from California of people like me who were heartily tired of anything to do with whacked out California leftist policies and are grateful to have arrived where at least a modicum of common sense prevails.

Well, TAM, there are at least TWO of us!

[The Annoyed Man]

Jim, when we moved our family here in 2006 from California, we had it only slightly better. For one thing, I moved with my job, so money was not so much of an issue. (The company owner hung himself 18 months later, leaving me without that job, but that's another story...) Another advantage we had was that we knew the 3 other people and their families who moved with the company. But we all left our extended families behind. And for 3 of the 4 employees who moved with the company, we sold homes in California at a handsome profit and were able to establish ourselves here.

But despite those advantages, and despite our strong desire to move here, it was still a very difficult process. I spent the first two months living in a hotel room alone down in Dallas. Then I rented an apartment for my family and me in Grapevine, pending finding a home to buy. I lived in the apartment alone for a month until the school year was over for our son and I could move my wife and son out here. We lived in that apartment for about another month until we bought our house.

But during this time, we knew nobody else, and we had not yet developed a network of friends. Once we found a good church, all of that changed. But it was a tough few months. My wife's parents both died here not too long after we moved here. My remaining family are all still back in California, and I miss them a lot.

I don't know if the risks were as severe as yours were, but they were plentiful and between April 2006 and April 2009, we:

1. Moved me to Texas on 04/16/06.

2. Moved my wife and son to Texas on 06/24/06.

3. Bought a home on 07/27/06.

4. Moved my in-laws to Texas in 02/07.

5. Lost my father in law to lung cancer on 09/26/07.

6. Lost my employer to suicide on 09/29/07.

7. Lost my job on 11/15/07

8. Supported my mother in law through mastectomies and radiation treatment for breast cancer, starting after Thanksgiving of '07.

9. Started a new business on 05/01/08.

10. Lost my mother in law to metastasized breast cancer on 04/09/09.

And in between those events, we had 3 pets put to sleep.

Life is hard. Life goes on. God is good.

Not to belittle your hardships, especially with losing both inlaws to cancer.
But to many of us moving is not a big thing.

I went to 16 separate school systems in 4 states by the time I finished the 7th grade.

I drove to Wyoming from Oklahoma to work the day after I got my driver's license and 2 days after my 16th birthday.

The next year I drove to Montana to work.

In 1974 I packed up everything my wife and I owned and moved to Baytown Texas from Oklahoma. I lived and worked in that area for 16 of the next 20 years.

Between February 1987 and April 1991 I worked on the East and West Coasts during that time I spent Feb 87 through July 87 alone. Later I spent from July 1990 to April 1991 working alone, 2000 miles from home.

A fellow once asked what it was like where I grew up. My answer was: You get tough, you leave or you die. I was grown before I left.

Since then I have often worked away from home for months and years at a time. I learned long ago. You do what it takes to take care of your family.

I guess that it depends on your upbringing. Mine was one of independence and doing what was necessary.

Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm a whiner. I wish I were more of a big man.

Dude, this doesn't have a dang thing to do with my upbringing. I was raised by a decorated WIA hero of Iwo Jima, and a woman who survived the Nazi occupation and ate cats and rats to stay alive. You moved to to 4 different states and and 16 schools by the 7th grade. I moved TWICE to different continents with different languages and different schools by the 5th grade. If you don't think I learned something from that, then I can't help you, but I surely don't use those facts to diminish the lives of other people. I'm not sure what part of what I wrote failed to resonate with you when I said "Life is hard. Life goes on. God is good." I'm not complaining. Life is hard. Life does go on. God is good. But I don't consider myself to be better than anyone - or less than anyone - simply because I give credit to God's goodness. You seriously need to think a little less of yourself. You're far from being the only one who has gotten through the University of Hard Knocks, and your response to my post is a perfect example of what SeamusTX was trying to communicate in his opening post.

Good grief.

[Oldgringo]

Is it time for a ?

[Ameer]

However, it is obnoxious when someone leaves a place (usually to make a better living) and then tries to make their destination have the same problems as the place that they left. I have known people like that.

and not all of them come from Up North

[WildBill]

Moving isn't a big deal to me personally, but I can appreciate how it might be for others.

Moving is one of the top stressors for many people. If the move is a result of loss of income, death or illness in the family, divorce or changing jobs or schools that stress is multiplied.

http://www.stresstips.com/lifeevents.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[OldCurlyWolf]

Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm a whiner. I wish I were more of a big man.

Dude, this doesn't have a dang thing to do with my upbringing. I was raised by a decorated WIA hero of Iwo Jima, and a woman who survived the Nazi occupation and ate cats and rats to stay alive. You moved to to 4 different states and and 16 schools by the 7th grade. I moved TWICE to different continents with different languages and different schools by the 5th grade. If you don't think I learned something from that, then I can't help you, but I surely don't use those facts to diminish the lives of other people. I'm not sure what part of what I wrote failed to resonate with you when I said "Life is hard. Life goes on. God is good." I'm not complaining. Life is hard. Life does go on. God is good. But I don't consider myself to be better than anyone - or less than anyone - simply because I give credit to God's goodness. You seriously need to think a little less of yourself. You're far from being the only one who has gotten through the University of Hard Knocks, and your response to my post is a perfect example of what SeamusTX was trying to communicate in his opening post.

Good grief.

I see you didn't give any credence to my first sentence. I am not belittling your hardships. Those were/are real.

I did not try to call you a whiner nor any other thing in a similar vein. I was simply stating that to some a move to another state is not a big deal. To others, and I have met a few, a move to a different town 20 miles away is a major upheaval in their lives. I am an example of those who think a move is not a problem.

Apparently I am still learning my communication skills.