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Originally Posted by Brian Pfleuger
New York City
Which, geographically, is 0.17% of New York State. The vast majority of the rest of that 99.83% of the state is as or more gun friendly as anywhere else in America.
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Come on, now, Brian. You know as well as the rest of us, that the rest of the state is still quite restrictive. And, it isn't the geographical proportions that matter, it's the population. New York City, alone (not including the metro area), accounts for 43% of the state's population. When you add in the metro area, it just gets worse from there.
I know you have been forced to live with those restrictions for a long time, and have become accustomed to the atmosphere, but it isn't gun-friendly by
any means.
I lived in two of what many people considered to be some of the best counties in the state, for gun rights. Yet, I could not legally possess handgun ammunition of any kind, because I didn't have a pistol permit. ...which, of course, meant I couldn't possess a handgun, either. I could not possess more than 1 lb of smokeless powder, because the local governments (all the way down to township level) considered it to be "hazardous to the community". I could not possess more than 100 primers, because they were a "dangerous explosive material".
And, the local reloading suppliers were so afraid of making a mistake that would land them on the wrong side of the NY State goonsquad, that almost all of them refused to sell components of any kind to anyone with a non-resident ID.
When I lived just outside Rochester, a deaf child there was shot for "brandishing" a handgun in his front yard. ...except it was a cordless phone.
Yet...
Two weeks ago, I stopped at a gas station, while driving between Pocatello, Idaho, and Salt Lake City, Utah, to execute a trade involving firearms, reloading tools, components, and cash. We literally handed off the goods while pumping gas at the pumps of a very busy filling station / truck stop at the crossroads of two major highways, and no one even gave us a dirty look. A few people actually seemed to be admiring the uncased blued steel. It sounds ridiculous to people in restrictive states, but the transaction was perfectly legal under state and federal law.
All the while, both of us had legally concealed handguns, with no license requirement. Heading the other direction, when I cross the border into Idaho (slightly more restrictive than Utah), all I have to do to remain legal is put the handgun in plain sight or unload it (it can't be loaded and concealed in a vehicle, without a permit).
I know it hurts to admit that you live in a state that is very restrictive and oppressive, and that I live in the middle of some of the least-restrictive states; but that doesn't change how ridiculous NY is, when it comes to guns, gun ownership, and the majority opinion. NY sucks.