I recently traveled to Del Ray Beach Florida to visit my nonagenarian mother. In the course of my day, I schmoozed with a number of [initially] friendly ex-patriated New Yorkers. When they asked me what I did for a living, they blanched. One literally put her head in her hands. Another said “I don’t want to talk to you.” Luckily, I don’t live in Del Ray. Or my home state of Rhode Island (same sh*t different wrapper).

desantis blue logo no back 4 smallI now live in Austin, Texas Despite Austin being a blue island in a sea of red statedness, I have yet to encounter any neighborly anti-gun antagonism. My ‘hood’s largely comprised of Asian and Indian immigrants (we’re the token white family). While they’re uncomfortable around guns, they’re not uncomfortable with the idea of guns. Or gun rights. My open carrying schnauzer treks attract attention but no animus.

Do you have anti-gun neighbors? If so, tell us about your interactions.

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65 COMMENTS

  1. I live in the bay area, california. I don’t know or speak to my neighbors. Seems the norm around here.

  3. I read that one line wrong the first time. I thought it implied the schnauzer open carries!
    Do dog licences cover that?

      • So if he operates operationally on a fire hydrant does that count as a live fire component?

        • Nope. Not with my schnauzer.
          Neighbors do get upset when he backdoors the 410 casings…

        • No, that’s how burning fire hydrants get put out. It’s extremely effective, you know. When was the last time you saw a burning fire hydrant?

  4. If I do they’re in the minority. There is daily training fire coming from property in all directions where I am.
    I take that back. I know of one who doesn’t like it. Not because of any political position but because they board dogs and when the shooting is near enough the dogs bark and bark and bark.

    However there’s some jerk-off twenty-something who rides a dirtbike up and down the road without point or cause and everybody hates him.

  6. Do I have anti-gun neighbors?

    HAHA HAHAHA… HAHAHAHA

    Not anymore!

    (Truthfully, my neighbors are so into doing their own thing that they wouldn’t bother asking about a gunshot or the loud roar of a wood chipper at 3 o’clock in the morning.) ☺️

    Don’t ask me how I know this. I just do.

  9. Uh…think there must be some glitch here. My post regarding the mattering of black lives was deleted. Please restore it to the top of the comments section.

    • I’ve seen your similar post on the next story. Perhaps if you wrote why you thought the statement “Black Lives Matter!” was relevant to the story it would stay. Otherwise perhaps the moderator considered it to be spam clogging up the site.

      • It was a mistake to delete it. it just validates me and encourages me to continue. Also, I’ve timed the posts of their articles, so…you’ll be seeing a lot more of me.

        • In this forum the moderators are very proactive about keeping the discussion on topic. If you can somehow tie the mattering of black lives into the the point you would likely see your post persist. Off topic clutter ruins everybody’s experience. Excessive vulgarity, people trying to sell stuff, cookie recipes, single sentences with no reference to the conversation are all detrimental to the content of this forum. So buck up and try to participate. Even trolls can put in a little effort towards creativity.

        • Most of us are quite mature enough to ignore irrelevant comments. Why don’t you go out and do something meaningful to make YOUR life “matter?” You have that opportunity every moment of your life, and annoying people who have no input into that is a sad waste of time.

          Can’t think of a single thing I could do to make YOUR life matter, no matter what color you happen to be. That’s a do it yourself project… for all of us.

        • Also, I’ve timed the posts of their articles

          Now that’s a neat Internet trick, timing the posting of articles on a site that’s been posting content hourly for years…

    • Or how about the racist BLM groupies do something to make their lives matter, stop harassing innocent people, and stop insulting everyone’s intelligence.

  10. Nah not particularly. I speak with a lot of my neighbors, and most come right out and talk about guns or hunting and the like. The ones who I haven’t talked about guns with, you get a vibe that they definitely aren’t anti-gun. There only seems to be one lady who I would think is anti-gun (because of the Hillary sticker on her car). She is the same lady who calls the cops on Independence Day because of people shooting fireworks.

  12. My daughter and my neighbors daughter walked into the living room when I was readjusting my AR15 in its soft case before heading out to the range. The neighbors kid, the same age as my 9 yo, exclaimed WOW! I turned and smiled, held it up for a second then back into the case. My daughter and her friend then left and I headed to the range. When I got home my neighbor Todd, who is the father of my daughters friend, came over while I was unloading my gear. We’ve always been on good friendly terms and I could see he was uncomfortable with what he had to say. He asked that I didn’t have my guns around his daughter. My immediate thought was, who the F are you to tell me…, But I understood his daughter must have said she saw a gun in my house blah blah blah. So I explained to him what happened. I told him I didn’t know his daughter was in my house with my daughter and it was an unintended meeting when I was readjusting my gun. I assured him that all my guns are locked and he Need not fear that his daughter plays in my home. He immediately was placated and apologized for any hard feelings and said it wasn’t him but his wife that asked him to come over.. Thats my story. Not much drama.

    • Sounds like you now have an intro into inviting your neighbor (at least the husband) to the range next time.

      • Yes, he is definitely ripe for converting to pro gun. I am pretty sure he is deep down but has a liberal anti-gun pro Hillary wife. Uggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

  13. Beats me. I’m south of Chicago in Cook county. My neighbors are disappearing with many empty houses on my block. My burb is pretty pro-2A with a gun shop nearby busily doing CCL apps…and overwhemingly pro gun Indiana is a mile east. I HAVE heard whiny girlyboys moaning about open carry in Indiana…

  14. I live in west central Wisconsin. There are those who are anti-gun but no gentleman would admit to it.

    • Move just a bit north and east….near the UP. Betcha won’t find ANYBODY anti-gun up here. My guess is, that after being up here for several years, the talk between neighbors isn’t anti-gun, it’s more like “You’ve got one of those? Sweet! ”

      Love it.

  15. I suspect my neighbors are only anti-gun because they’re woefully ignorant about guns.

    But I’m not about to enlighten them. Not in CT.

  16. I was the last person in my subdivision to own guns. I have lived here for 15 years but bought my first gun in 2013. Shit was getting crazy about that time and I felt guilty for not joining my neighbors and bearing arms. I wasn’t anti-gun. I was anti-funds.
    I did have the cops come by after a little noise, but that was someone visiting that called them so that doesn’t count. Maybe you read about it here.

  17. I have three bad neighborhood problem neighbors who called the sheriff every time we went shooting claiming we were shooting automatic weapons and children or at them ……..after over twenty incidents of the sheriff wasting their time and resources we got the county DA to warn them that they were filing frivolous complaints and the next complaint would result in them being prosecuted.

    End of problem for 20 years

    Another positive is that knowing we are regular shooters and possibly armed at any time these problem neighbors NEVER, EVER bother us in person

    Be polite to the police and get them on your side. GEt them to see the neighbor as the problem. Get them to specify in any report that the complaint was frivolous. PARTICULARLY have the officer identify any hyperbolic lies in the complaint like “automatic weapons” or “reckless conduct”

    Keep a contemporaneous detailed hard bound record of all complaints and when there have been a threshold number of complaints (that are all clearly frivolous) maybe as few as 5-10 agitate the DA to protect your rights

    I’m in the Bay Area and over the last five years more and more of my surrounding neighbors have started to practice shooting. Some regularly.

    • …may I ask where you shoot? I visit the Santa Clara field sports park off Metcalf road in south San Jose.

  18. Some of my neighbors are virulently anti-gun. Some of my neighbors are virulently pro-gun. I have made it a point to feel-out the neighbors and restrict my firearms oriented displays and conversations to the neighbors who are pro-gun.

    If I did not operate a small business that provides a service to something like half of my neighbors/community, I would be much more vocal/open. As it stands, I don’t want to risk alienating half of my customer base … it would cost me thousands of dollars per year.

  19. Yes, my neighbors are Obamabots, and very anti gun. Fortunately, we avoid talking about politics. He doesn’t get in my face, I don’t get in his. Works fine for me. It’s kind of stupid to antagonize someone who lives right next to you.

  20. Next door neighbors don’t own guns but the husband is kinda curious. One day I’m going to the range with him and see what happens. Should be entertaining.

    • That’s how I get some folks from to come out. Even some of the “oh, that’s just icky” ones. Of course, I haven’t run into any Gersh Kuntzman’s, so I guess I’ve lucky.

      Not quite as good a MSR salesman as our current POTUS, but PSA has definitely received several orders from folks that are registered Ds because of my small efforts.

  21. Other than my fellow gun nuts, nobody knows that I used to own firearms before the canoeing accidents.

  22. Five of my neighbors know that I carry and none of them seem opposed to it. A couple are curious, one carries and the other three don’t seem to care one way or the other.

    OTOH, who would start an argument with someone who carries a gun? The argumentative person would be (i) an idiot or (ii) unconcerned about retaliation.

    If the former, it makes our case that antis are idiots. And if the latter, doesn’t it prove our case that POTG are peaceful and not to be feared?

  23. I have just one of whom I’m aware, a post office retiree from NYC. He tried to tell me guns couldn’t be shipped through the USPO. I called BS and showed him the regs and told him I regularly received and shipped via the PO (I have an FFL). He said I didn’t know what I was talking about. He’s one with whom I don’t bother to interact these days. I live a rural existence at the northern homestead and people there let each other do whatever.

  24. No. I have some that can’t have firearms though.

    How do you secure that open-carried Schnauser?

    Is the recoil controllable?

    Just wondering.

  26. I live in the same general area (school district) that Robert does. My home is located in a smaller neighborhood (enclave) of around 30 homes. Yeah, I’ll agree we have our share of liberals here.

    For my own edification, during our last neighborhood gathering I did some informal polling about guns. To my disappointment, there were only a handful of CHL holders. I was also surprised, I could not find anyone who didn’t own at least one gun. Liberal or not, they’re all tooled up and believers in the Castle Doctrine.

  27. Nope, I live in Nevada. Everyone in my apartment complex that I know either owns or has nothing against gun ownership.

    • MacDonald Ranch in Henderson. Most of my neighbors are lib-progs and think guns are somewhere between ‘icky’ and ‘OMG, he has a GUN!!!’.

  28. Haha, where I live it is expected and assumed, my neighbors would laugh at me if I didn’t have any guns! Most any weekend afternoon can hear someone shooting somewhere…

  29. One neighbor on one side is anti-gun. She visibly winces and glares when she sees me packing for hunting or a trip to the range. The other on the other side is a 2A-friendly cop, and doesn’t care for his boss (Chief “Avocado” of the Austin PD). He and I get along a lot better than I do with the wincer.

  30. I just don’t talk to my neighbors. Easier that way. But, as I’ve mentioned before, I work the 2nd Amendment hard in my Civics classes with my largely Hispanic student base. The majority of them are 1st generation. I ask those whose parents came from Central America and Mexico if they know why their parents immigrated. “They won’t talk about it.” Me: let me explain right wing death squads, narco-terrorism, government corruption, and gang violence. Now let’s talk about why the right to keep and bear arms is important.

  31. I have no idea who in my neighborhood has weapons and unless they see me carry range bag from car to front door, even then, could think it’s a gym bag, they don’t know we have weapons. Don’t worry about anyone Swatting us, it would bring down property values.

  32. I live outside of Houston. I think the most gun averse people I know are the cops.

    As for your neighbors, RF, I’m happy to have a chat with them. My parents immigrated from the “Worlds Largest Democracy” and I’ve noticed that for many brownies, it takes seeing another brownie who is comfortable around firearms for them to get into it. But like cars and homes, they go whole hog and drop some serious cash.

    I know meeting the plebes is never encouraged for bloggers, but I thought I’d make the offer.

  33. On the contrary, ALL my “neighbors” have guns. Rural Oklahoma, outside city limits, everybody on at least 20 acres. Weekend afternoons sound like what I imagine Vietnam in the late 60s must have sounded like. Including one old boy with a Thompson, full auto variety. Did I mention, zero crime?

  34. Yes I do.

    I load and unload my truck in the garage as I really don’t want my neighbors seeing my ‘arsenal’ (at least that is certainly what the media would call it) anyway.

    And if they do and have issues, they can take the piss. If they don’t want their special snowflakes playing with my boys, that’s excellent. I don’t need my boys around their indoctrinated proto-progs either.

    Wankers.

  35. I won’t say my neighbors are anti-gun (next door is a family of police officers), but the neighbor across the street is definitely uncomfortable with firearms. Most of my mailings from the NRA come to my home; however, the advertising from the NRA Store kept getting delivered to the neighbor across the street. She would stop me when I got home from work and inform me she had more of my mail. When she returned with my mail she was carrying the NRA Store mailer by the corner between her thumb and forefinger like she was carrying something extremely dangerous, or maybe a smelly diaper. They’re nice people, but clearly the concept of firearms disturbs them.

  36. I don’t wear 2A t-shirts and can’t legally open carry. I load up my truck for range trips while it’s in my attached garage. Even the interior of my house would give no indication of gun ownership, except for the reloading factory in the basement and the NRA sticker on the door.

    Likewise, I have no idea which neighbors, if any, are gun owners. The subject doesn’t come up, unless I happen to mention my trap shooting habit.

    When we bought the home, the realtor told us it was a really nice neighborhood, but she lied. There are several Democrats there. I manage to get along with them.

  37. I live in the middle of Seattle. Everybody is anti-gun in my neighborhood, except for me and my wife.

  38. I honestly don’t know. And quite possibly, do not care.

    Having had bad experiences with nosy and/or obnoxious neighbors before, I try to keep a healthy distance from them nowadays
    Wave at them if I see them, say hello if I run into them and keep any conversations as short and neutral as possible. I don’t need or want to know their “dirt” and certainly do not appreciate them trying to pry into my personal life by yakking my ears off.

  39. I left NY because the government was typical of the NE: Oppressive and dangerous. NY is primarily a blue state with unfunded pension mandates in the tens of millions and an attitude of anti-gun/anti-police. The author of this article found himself in a typical situation when he encountered angry liberals. They attack. Don’t defend yourself to these bullies. Proudly wear your side arm and be prepared to toss a few statements about limited government and NY crime, slovenliness and high taxes. If they liked NY so much, they’d still be living there. Many NYers leave due to the high cost of living – at least the taxpayers leave. The welfare careerists remain.

    I don’t talk to my neighbors and if the situation arises where I have to, I don’t tell them that I’m a retired LEO. I live in an HOA. One brazen liberal on the board emailed the community about Christmas one year and she made it clear she wasn’t going to use the word “Christmas” for fear of “offending” people (SOP with these bullies). This was before Hussein Obama. I let her have it and said “I am offended that you refuse to acknowledge Christ.” She changed her rhetoric quickly and I never heard from her again. They also avoid eye contact – makes my life much easier!

    I live in a conservative state that is becoming more liberal by the day as NE transients move here and influence the voting bloc. I carry my side arm daily. If it gets noticed, so be it. I’ve been confronted by the occasional libtard and i’m prepared to go back at them. They mean nothing to me and are frankly dangerous.

  40. So far the only neighbor that has commented on my shooting off my back deck said, sounds like you’re shooting .223, you should get a real gun like my .308. 🙂

    Gun fire can be heard multiple times a week in several direction from my house, good feeling.

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