Why Don’t Gun Owners Just Move From Where They Lose Their Rights?

Opinion

New York, USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- With the start of the new year less than a month away, many things will change as new members of state and the federal government are sworn in, and in some places, power changes hands.

In Washington the Democrats succeeded in taking back the House, meaning that we will now likely see a move towards never ending impeachment proceedings and investigations. In various states though, governors have been elected from opposite parties and here in New York, while the GOP failed to get out the vote to oust Andrew Cuomo, possibly worse than that is that the state senate, which has been held narrowly by a Republican majority, fell to the Democrats. Giving Cuomo complete and total control over the state electorate.

Right on cue one of the first priorities is new gun control legislation, as Cuomo has promised to make in his own words, New York state a model for “progressive” values to the rest of the nation.

Of course, this means more gun laws to come and with no one to stop him and his party, one can imagine that the GOP will offer their token resistance without much else, as gun owners get steamrolled once more.

Most of the gun laws are things we knew were coming, microstamping, safe storage acts, a new “red flag flaw”. Perhaps one of the most disturbing ideas was one no one expected, and that’s a new proposal by Brooklyn Senator Kevin Parker where it would require gun owners in New York to submit three years of social media history before you could purchase a gun and the same info to anyone who needs to renew their pistol permit. This proposal brings one to mind of the dreaded Thought Police from George Orwell’s 1984. Of course, when asked Parker said that had such a thing been in place the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter would have been stopped in his tracks before buying a gun.

Of course, blaming the innocent for the guilty has become a habit of those on the left and violating the rights of millions means nothing as long as it’s for the “greater good”. So many wrongs have been committed against the innocent throughout history because it has been for the “greater good.”

So while I was online today discussing the thought if new gun laws here in New York, I was told in no uncertain terms, I should move, and many who don’t live in this state or California or other repressive states often wonder why those of us here stay. The simple thing is, it is not all that easy to pack up and leave.

Leaving an oppressive state behind sounds like it would be the easiest thing in the world to do, and trust me I have thought of it. I have looked around and wondered which state to move to, but in this day and age, where to?

I once thought about moving to Vermont. At one time for gun owners it was perhaps the freest state in the northeast, but that is quickly changing as their Republican governor in essence sold the residents there down the river with new gun laws that now limits their magazines to ten rounds and raises the age to buy a gun to 21. Sadly I am willing to bet that Governor Scott isn’t finished caving into Democrats demands when it comes to gun laws if he bowed that quickly before, he will do it again.

Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey are completely untenable when it comes to gun rights, and they’re liable to have more laws as soon as they can run them through. I believe the last real holdout state in the Northeast is New Hampshire, but who knows how long that can last.

Gun laws are sweeping up and down the west coast as well with California of course in the lead, but now Oregon and Washington are cracking down on law-abiding gun owners in the heat to pass anything possible.

So many states narrowly missed swapping parties this election that could have spelled the beginning of new restrictions for gun owners. Florida and Georgia almost went Democrat, even the outgoing republican governor of Florida, Rick Scott signed new restrictive gun laws after the Parkland shooting.

There are now many experts that say so many states that were once Republican strongholds in the next decade may fall to Democrats. The fact is that in the state of Texas Senator Ted Cruz should have beaten his challenger Beto O’Rourke with ease and instead the race was very close right until the end. This trend could have dire consequences in the next couple of election cycles.

What this means is, where does someone move to when it appears the gun rights that you may have now could be in jeopardy in the next ten years and how far do you keep running?

The reality sadly is, the map is shrinking for gun owners, and while nothing might get passed federally with the Republicans in control of at least one half of Congress, the same can’t be said for individual states.

The other truth is that for many, it’s impractical if not impossible for someone to pack up and move from one state to another. Sure once someone is retired and their kids are grown and out of the house, that becomes a little easier, but if you’re still working, have a job and a spouse with a job, a pensions, kids in school, it’s just not that simple to put up a “For Sale” sign and get out of Dodge.

I have talked to many gun owners my age, who are middle-aged, are not young anymore but are a good ten years or more from being retired. They feel not only stuck in the middle but betrayed. I’ve seen them at gun shows talking with representatives from the NRA or other gun rights groups saying that more needs to be done. Not saying that the NRA isn’t doing something, but a lot of these people don’t see it. They say they don’t see the NRA actively campaigning here, and gunnies think they have been let down because New York consistently votes Democrat in every Presidential election. I have heard these complaints over and over again and sadly these people stay home in every critical election, one because they’re told that upstate New York, which is solid GOP territory, cannot beat New York City and its surrounding counties, which always goes blue. So they stay home, and they’re angry, and they feel lost.

Gun owners in states where Democrats also hold sway also have another reason to stay, they’re rebellious even if only in words. They stage large rallies like those following the Safe Act here in New York, often right on the front door at the Governor’s mansion. While it never changes any minds, it lets the powers that be know that they will not be ignored. I expect more of them, and they have always been peaceful.

If anything that’s the real reason we stay. Anyone who has never visited New York only thinks of it as New York City and nothing else. They don’t realize that most of the state is very rural with beautiful mountains and lakes. The smaller communities reminds one of The Waltons and a Norman Rockwell painting. It’s hard to want to leave a state where there is so much beauty. If it weren’t for the cities this state would be a downright garden of Eden.

So many of us, who can’t afford to leave, refer to ourselves as living in occupied territory or behind enemy lines. We know that one day the people will have had enough. You see it here in New York state now with a significant groundswell to separate New York City from the rest of the state, and the more laws that are passed here to restrict our rights will make those cries louder. One has to remember before there is freedom, one must have suffered tyranny.

So there it is, while many from other states tell us under the yolk of tyranny to scram, it’s not as easy as one makes it sound. Many of us would like to but are held here for one reason or another, be it a job, career, family, or the fact that many of us don’t want to see the places our families sweated over and lived in destroyed without putting up some a fight. We have been told these are insurmountable odds, we have been told it’s a lost cause. I am sure that another group of men some two hundred odd years back were told the same thing when they were oppressed. And while we won’t do so with violence, in this age of information the revolt is beginning, and those pushing will be pushed back upon by their constituents at the ballot box when they finally realize that they’ve had enough.

It’s just a matter of time before the powers that be step once too many on our rights.

About David LaPell

David LaPell has been a Corrections Officer with the local Sheriff’s Department for thirteen years. A collector of antique and vintage firearms for over twenty years and an avid hunter. David has been writing articles about firearms, hunting and western history for ten years. In addition to having a passion for vintage guns, he is also a fan of old trucks and has written articles on those as well.