I just put my house on the market. I am officially moving out of California. I will soon be a Wyomingite. This is a bittersweet move; I’m leaving many good friends that I love and respect behind. People who share my love of firearms and cherish their gun rights. But I’m not abandoning them. My attempts to help the residents of California gain more rights and freedom won’t cease once I move . . .
I will still donate to California Rifle and Pistol Association, the gun rights group on the front lines against the fascist politicians and crazy liberals demanding more and more of residents’ firearms freedom. I will still write about my experiences in California, shedding light on what the Golden State has done to its gun owners. Knowledge is power, right? Speaking of which, let’s do the math . . .
My family will be saving over $600 a month in taxes. That’s an enormous expense in an expensive state. When it comes to guns, California dings you every way you turn. For starters, here’s a rundown (from the state website) of what you have to pay the state to purchase a firearm in California:
The total state fee is $25. The DROS [Dealer Record of Sale] fee is $19.00 which covers the costs of the background checks and transfer registry. There is also a $1.00 Firearms Safety Act Fee and a $5.00 Safety and Enforcement Fee. In the event of a private party transfer (PPT), the firearms dealer may charge an additional fee of up to $10 per firearm. If the transaction is not a PPT the dealer may impose other charges as long as this amount is not misrepresented as a state fee. When settling on the purchase price of a firearm, you should ask the dealer to disclose all applicable fees.
There are fees and regulations for just about everything gun related. For example, if you give a handgun to your spouse, “the recipient must obtain a Handgun Safety Certificate prior to taking possession and must also submit a Report of Operation of Law or Intra-Familial Handgun Transaction, pdf and $19 fee to the DOJ within 30 days after taking possession. The same rules apply to the return of the firearm at a later date.”
I’ve written here about the costs and hassle associated with obtaining and maintaining a California concealed handgun license, which doesn’t “allow” open carry. In my new home state, there’s no permit or fees for residents who wish to open or conceal carry a firearm. I can buy any gun I want and leave the store with it. No literacy test-like pre-purchase “training,” no tyrannical waiting time, no registration or dictatorial list of guns I’m allowed to buy.
Again, I’m not giving up on California. I know that the gun owners in California aren’t the ones making the laws. To say they “deserve” less freedom because the live inside a certain state isn’t fair; they’re vastly outnumbered. Some people have no choice but to stay “behind enemy lines.” It’s in everyone’s interest to take the fight to the enemy. If you give up on an anti-gun state simply because you don’t live there, don’t be surprised when the anti-gun virus spreads from its borders.
Sara,
Welcome to America, the land of the free and home of the brave. We take for granted what we have, until we don’t have it anymore.
California is a beautiful state. Great place to visit, but…..
. . . helluva place to liberate.
Good thing we practiced in Iraq.
My God, with that lack of controls Wyoming must be awash with gun crime! Blood in the streets!!!
I grew up in Wyoming. Not as many streets there. We did live on a paved road, though.
. . . conspicuous absence of mention of blood. . .
Mainly from roadkill.
Neighbors on either side each had 100 yard ranges in their back yards. Afternoons near hunting season got a little noisy, but the only things getting holes in them were paper targets.
Don’t ask “God” about it… I’m pretty sure he can’t wrap his head around the reason why Wyoming doesn’t have anywhere near the crime rate as California.
“God” needs to be involuntarily committed pending a psych evaluation, after which the shrink really should talk to him about his obsession with the ammosexual word. With any luck he’ll find some more redeeming activity.
Tom
Probably lurking in his mom’s basement waiting to hear from the tyrannosaurus.
No, he’s a worshiper of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Welcome to the Free World.
Thank you Sara for your continued support for California gun rights.
California just suffered a big hit to the aggregate amount of common sense in the skulls of its denizens.
Sara, I hope Wyoming suits you well.
I would like to second that motion to welcome Sara to the great state on Wyona , I have been through there on a couple of occasions and would concur , It truly is a gorgeous state . I wish Sara all the best and hope the people welcome her kindly . I wish she would have chosen West Virginia but I think she will be an asset to the great frontier country . Watch that jeeps transmission when your in the high country . God speed .
All my grandkids live in CA. For me it’s not an option to save myself and leave them. If they would leave with me, gone I’d be.
Been stuck here for almost a year due to long term contractual obligations to a government entity. Thank god I’m leaving soon, but I’m still gonna donate to calguns.
No grandkids, yet. But I and my family spent a good part of our lives in SF Bay Area and putting up with all sorts of liberal nonsense. Got a great offer in Virginia 5 years ago and left the kids to fend for themselves in Silicon Valley. Should the boys decide to give their old man a break and FINALLY settle down, I would probably demand they haul ass and relocate somewhere near Fredericksburg since I’ll be damned if they think I’ll give up concealed carry, No mag limits, No bullet buttons, No “Approved” list and other such crap just to baby sit for them.Nah, who am I kidding. They probably can get me to visit if they ask nicely enough…
Babysit? Me and the munchkins are co-conspirators. My wife has to watch them and me. My second childhood rocks!
Sara,
That’s flippin’ awesome! I’m not giving up on CA because I’m stuck here for awhile. We’ve seen expanded background check laws and AWB bans seep across state lines. There’s certainly more of that to come – especially if we get more anti-gun politicians at the state and federal level in ’16.
I do have multiple friends in Orange County with CCW permits, but the permits only allow a maximum of 3 handguns. Conceal the “wrong” handgun and you’re at the mercy of statist cops and additional anti-gun jurisprudence. Sad. Ditto with mags over 10 rounds and other shenanigans.
I’ll think I’ll spend some money that I was going to spend on .22 LR and put it towards a pro-gun cause.
Sara,
Congrats on the pending move.
And if I may add a few things you didn’t mention…
Reduced-capacity CA-compliant magazines are often more (and sometimes much more) expensive than their standard-capacity counterparts. If you can find them at all.
Your new handgun selection in CA is much more limited, and becoming more so every day as models fall off the “not unsafe” roster.
And depending on where in CA you live, you may not be able to mail order common things like spare parts and ammo.
Permit me to offer a word of caution … When all of those restrictions go away, it’s very tempting to go out and purchase stuff CA doesn’t think you should have. Our gun collection expanded considerably in the months following our move… 🙂
My buddy and his wife left California after only 18 months. He moved to Colorado and estimates between property, state income tax and all the other fees he saved almost 45K a year.
When we moved, my salary stayed the same but I got about a 15% increase in net income (lower sales, income and property tax) and about a 20% lower cost of living.
And we’re generally happier all around – frog-in-a-pot syndrome at its best.
my 5 year plan is to get out. I just have to find a place to move my business ( Computer service and repair ) and wait for my youngest to hit 18. Idaho is in the top 3, followed by Northern Arizona and Texas ( if I can find a green part of Texas and Arizona. I am DONE with the desert.) Don’t worry, California has hardened my conservative constitutional views into a diamond like substance- I’m not bringing any progressive ideas with me, rest assured.
Well, if you like coffee (seems like a natural assumption) and / scotch, or are looking for a SoCal shooting buddy, you can get a hold of me at [email protected]
Hill Country and Houston would be good options. Houston has more green, and is certainly not the desert. Plus, large population centers mean more computers to repair.
As a bonus, you will find a lot of well off areas throughout the triangle, where companies and consumers cannot be deigned to perform their own repairs. I know my area could do with a good repair place.
I got out of CA last year and moved to the Phoenix area. From Oct-May it is perfect here, but I am getting cabin fever really bad. Check out Prescott for a decent amount of work without the big city. It is at 5200ft and is adjacent to national forest. As soon as I can sell my house and profit on it in a couple of years that is where I am heading. The summer in phoenix is rougher than I thought it would be.
You suffer from the belief that all of texas is burnt over Desert. If you follow 35 south from the Oklahoma Border down to Austin Everything East of that line stays very wet, green, and warm. And just a fun fact for you 70% of Texas’s population Lives within 200 Miles of Austin.
There’s lots of green space in Texas. Forest land alone covers roughly 38% of our territory. That’s nearly as much ground as the entire state of Arizona!
The principal pine hardwood region, called Piney Woods, spans some 43 counties in East Texas, from the Red River along the TX-OK border, down to Houston.
Come on to Texas. Everyone hard working and freedom minded is welcome.
” . . . I am DONE with the desert . . .”
Flagstaff
Similar story moving out of MA to NC. 40% drop is household income but we live so much better down here. We have the biggest house ans lowest mortgage ever.
Combine Mortgage+escrow and utilities and that alone gains us $12K a year.
Wyoming is nice in the summer but too darn cold in the winter 🙂
How do you think I feel being stuck in the most corrupt place on earth; New York Shitty.
I’ve lived here all my life, I was indoctrinated from a very young age to believe that this hellhole was the greatest place in the world and that the detractors were just jealous. I was taught from elementary school that Reagan was evil, democrats were good, koch was god, guns were bad and only bad people had guns, unless they worked for the state, then they were good guys with guns. But only if they worked for the state.
Hoplophobia is instilled into young children at an early age, I had child services sent to my house because I took my then 13 year old son to a long island shooting range and he bragged about it to his friends and showed them pictures. He was suspended for no crime other than having used a firearm for sport. Self defense is taboo, my 6 year old was being bullied by a classmate and when she stood up for herself, she was punished for bullying. Even though we had a long list of notarized complaints against her bully.
Nothing will change here because the politicians are a god damned mafia who dont want anyone but them and their top friends, owning firearms. The teachers and all the unions are corrupt as shit. And I say this as a card carrying member of the IBEW. Why does my ‘Union Rep’ carry a gun but me and my brothers cant?
The instruments of the state are corrupt beyond repair. The society and culture of new york is designed to keep new york running at the expense of the citizen’s liberty and personal freedom. NY needs to keep people down to control them. NY needs to extinguish independent thought because it’s dangerous to the hegemony they have here. I’m glad that Texas and other gun friendly states are poaching jobs and taxes away from gun hating areas.
The worst part is I wish I could leave, but my life is here, my family and friends. The only shining light for me is that one day I’ll get out of this shitpit. Like all retirees I’ll probably take my pension out of state where they cant tax it, buy a nice house or two down south and finally have the freedom I need to own arms. Nothing will be done in this state, until the democrats and their republican lapdogs are publicly executed for treason.
FUCK NEW YORK.
Don’t sugar coat it, RP. Tell us how you really feel.
The biggest problem with California is that it used to be a great state. Incredible cutting edge infrastructure was built and the state was modern and forward looking. Now it’s just a rotting corpse and we are just living off of the remains of our forefathers. Even the high tech industry is there because it was developed in the sixties and seventies.
I too have seen California go from the golden state to the molding state. My wife (originally from Green Bay, WI) HATES California. I have come to her view myself. My kids are grown and gone, my father has passed, my mother isn’t too far behind him and I’m just waiting to get transferred to Texas. I will NOT be bringing any liberal views with me other than if you want to be a liberal go to CA or NY you’ll be happy there. I’m already selling my CA compliant firearms, don’t want to try to dump them in a hurry when I leave, besides who in the hell outside of CA wants a 10 round mag for an AR that requires a tool to change it? I can’t even change out the mag release in this CA compliant POS.
bye bye CA, hello USA!
I live in the SF Bay Area. When I go to Reno for bowling tournaments I always stop at Cabellas in Boomtown just over the state line and drool over all the stuff that is illegal in Calif. I’m now trying talk my wife into retiring around Reno when that time comes. Wish me luck with the wife.
Congrats on your soon-to-have freedoms. I moved from RI to MO and gained suppressor rights, machine gun rights and shall issue. I estimate a $35G annual saving in expenses and taxes.
35 thou a year?
Daaaaaaaaammmmmnnnnnnn!
That can buy a lot of toys and the food to feed ’em…
Congrats. I abandoned the PRC 6 years ago and will never look back. Sure the weather was amazing, but between crowding, taxes, gun grabbers, cost of living and everything else, I feel a lot better off where I am now.
Even though I’m making 50% less money now, I could suddenly afford to buy a home and stuff.
Exactly. I have to stifle a chuckle when recruiters call about jobs in CA. I’d have to make twice as much just to afford a crappy house in a crappy neighborhood. The home we have now is over $1.5M within driving distance of any place I could work. Not to mention that every gun in my home is illegal in CA except maybe my wife’s Walther CCP.
Back when I was a corporate animal, I lost track of the headhunters that called who just couldn’t understand that I wouldn’t consider jobs in CA,NYC, and a few other “choice” locations.
“Not to mention that every gun in my home is illegal in CA except maybe my wife’s Walther CCP.”
All part of the plan… See? We can’t move back there, honey! 🙂
You can move to CA with almost any gun, except named “assault weapons” and any scary-looking black long gun with features but no bullet button (easy fix). You just can’t bring regular-sized magazines (max 10 rounds). It’s only illegal for a dealer to sell them in the state, but private parties can do so (at least for now).
Which is why anyone moving to California should never, ever sell off firearms prior to moving. Move with them, submit them all on a single declaration with one fee regardless of number, then sell if you must.
“Which is why anyone moving TO California “
Who would choose to do that?
Like others have said above, I have turned down lucrative jobs because they were in CA or NY. There’s not enough money on the planet for me to live in either of those places (or a few others).
Re why would anyone choose to move TO California…
– Family
– School
– Military transfer
– Burning desire to live out a Tom Petty song
– Escape Mexico
“– School
I’ll grant military transfer, but school? Some Kool Aid that makes California think it has the market on the “right way to educate?”
No way, man. There’s NOTHING in CA’s higher education system that you can’t get just as well, if not better, somewhere else.
I’m talking about making CHOICES here. It never ceases to amaze me the rationalizations people come up.
I didn’t declare a damn thing when I moved to CA. How were they going to know, anyway?
Not 100% true, I had to give my Barrett 50 to a new home before I came back. Should have kept the gun and stayed away!
All that said, I now think the only way to salvage the ‘deep blue’ states is through federal legislation to create 50 state uniform rules that can’t be pre-empted by the states, and that’s about as likely as a third Bush in the White House.
Sara, you arguably have it much worse than I do, both in terms of laws and distance, but I’m also planning a move. Oak Park Illinois has proved too much for me and I will be moving, but likely still within Illinois. It’s crazy to think just two streets south I wouldn’t have to deal with prohibitions against the sale of a handgun or a AWB. No threats to seize my vehicle based on a standard capacity magazine.
Moving out of state is a better option still. Knowing that the ISP performs daily NICS checks on all legal gun owners and that the county police have a taskforce assigned to confiscate as quickly as possible. My wife actually avoided seeking counseling following a life-threatening illness because she enjoys going shooting and that outpatient treatment could mean the state revoking her FOID card for life.
But moving out of state also would also means taking a significant risk in both of our careers upended and the loss of pension benefits. Definitely feeling like more of a subject and less of a citizen in the land where democrats rule and all others reside.
Dont know what you guys do for a living but even tho we still hafta live by the same set of statewide rules, Montgomery Co. is like living in a whole different world. Could be worse, but it aint too bad down here.
That is how they trap you. Damn employer based defined benefit plans. Unions do the same thing to teachers. Can’t be treated like professionals as every other profession is.
IL sucks. What *really* sucks is being a non-resident in this hell-hole. I didn’t come willingly, but I will leave that way.
Congrats Sara. I left NYS in 1997 for the Free State of Texas. The moment I crossed the border between NYS and PA on the drive, my income went up 40%.
Enjoy your new found freedom.
After the passage of SB277, it’s likely a lot of people will be fleeing the once Golden State. But no worries, the anti gun laws, like the mandatory health care laws, will find you eventually anyway, regardless where you flee to.
Lots of people are giving up on California. Unfortunately, many move and want to recreate the “good” things about California. They can’t seem to make the connection between all those “good things” and the bad things that forced them to leave.
In Colorado we call that “Californication”, a term that pre-dated the television series by decades.
It’s treatable, but we’ll never be able to completely recover. Too damned many of them, and they’ve combined with the crunchies that were here to mutate into a more virulent form. That’s how we get politicians like DeGette and Polis.
LOL, we even had bumper stickers that read: “Don’t Californicate Wyoming”.
That’s exactly what is happening here in Oregon. All these California folks are fleeing to come into our state and it’s skyrocketed the housing market, doubled our commute time, flooded out farm to table living with mega chains, and caused boatloads of stupid legislation that has nothing to do with Oregon culture. Even Wal-mart has followed them up. This is all in the last 10-15 years.
People need to move where they fit, not bring their baggage with them. I don’t think folks realize that this b/s they are running from is a manifestation of things they voted for (mostly), and to get it, they ignored other valued parts of life until it rushes up and bites them. Then when they don’t like the mess, its easier to pack up and move away which starts the whole chaos again on a new community.
” . . . and caused boatloads of stupid legislation that has nothing to do with Oregon culture. . .”
People fleeing a place because of its bad conditions never realize that they’re bringing its culture with them when they move. They can’t make the connection between their values and what they left behind and so they typically set about recreating the exact same kind of political cesspool they thought they were escaping. They’re like a poor family that moves out of a gang-infested area to a safer, crime-free neighborhood, only to watch their kids form a gang and start breaking into houses.
” They can’t seem to make the connection between all those “good things” and the bad things that forced them to leave.”
+1000
Was talking with my children about just this phenomenon yesterday.
Some forms of collectivist thinking spreads like cancer. Sure is happening down here in NC as well…lots of folks coming down from the NE, and bringing “how we did it up there” with them.
I got no problem with folks moving here from elsewhere, but do remember WHY you left “there” and what attracted you to “here.” It’s the same thing with tourist attractions…beautiful scenery, beaches, whatever. The natural beauty is the attraction, then it gets bulldozed so some (often foreign) developer can build a hi-rise “resort.”
Spreads like a cancer….
Made a similar move last month when I relocated from NJ to PA. Just a 20 minute commute from one home to another saved me about $6k in yearly property taxes, about $200 on car insurance, AND opened up a whole new world in shooting sports for me. I can freely obtain my shall-issue carry permit, I can have a “normal” rifle without stock restrictions and capacity limits, and I can finally trade a pistol without having to apply for a separate 90-day purchaser’s permit.
I’m also not giving up on NJ, especially since I still have to work there, but success in promoting 2A rights in a politically anti-gun state comes down to one thing: attitude. If the vocal majority is against guns, then chances are that the lawmakers will swing to their favor. If the vox populi truly is in favor of the right to bear their arms, they need to speak up, because I still feel like I’m only one of a handful shouting against a tempest of liberal rhetoric, and the Assembly constantly has their bill-drafting pens in hand.
Keep up the good fight!
And you can presumably benefit from shopping in NJ and not paying the state sales tax?
It’s bittersweet, I’m sure, Sara, but in the end, you didn’t leave California. California left you. You’re doing the right thing for your family.
As a military retiree in CA I like nothing more than shopping at a military exchange tax free. As the clerk rings up the sale minus sales tax I say “Take that, Jerry Brown.” Edwards AFB has a small gun counter. I have bought several pistols there. Still pay the fees but no state tax.
California has no future in it’s present political configuration. It has to be broken up into at least three pieces, and that plan to break it up into six would be even better. Then I could see moving back there myself, but not until.
And give the former state that many more senators? No thanks.
Only – maybe – if Texas did the same thing.
Which Texas is entitled to do via its articles of incorporation into the United States.
And which, iirc, California is *not* entitled to do under the existing charters etc.
Much of California is deep red. Believe me, I’m from one of those areas. The only problem with this state is that the bay area and los angeles area voters outnumber the rest of the state. By area, California is a red state.
Same with WA state, or OR from my experience. Californication has just made King County (Seattle) even more blue, and it is the liberal tail that wags the rest of the state. That said, even with that I-594 POS, WA is still eons ahead of CA in terms of gun rights–I grew up in the SF Bay Area, so I know. Close to 12% of the population up here has CPLs, and we can now obtain suppressors! Makes my friends back in Kalifornia green with envy…
I live in one of the most conservative (red) counties in CA, but I’m still leaving. The tax benefits alone will run about $30K+ per year with a $120K difference on my final pay with the pension payout. California will just give it to illegals anyway, I can buy a lot of toys with $120K.
I have offered the solution to all of the firearms rights infringements in California and no one has responded.
Conservative option:
On a pre-planned day 100,000 California firearms owners descend on Sacramento for a rally at the state capital building. They notify the Press at least two weeks before the event. A few (perhaps 1 out of every 100) carry a concealed handgun at the rally which means something like 100 people are carrying concealed in “violation” of California concealed carry laws.
Provocative option:
On a pre-planned day 100,000 California firearms owners descend on Sacrament for a rally at the state capital building. They notify the Press at least two weeks before the event. EVERYONE carries an openly visible handgun in a holster or a long gun on a sling over their back.
The conservative option is “fun” because police will know for a fact that over 100 people are carrying concealed without California licenses … and yet they will have no way to know which person. Because they lack reasonable, articulable suspicion, they cannot detain/search anyone. And even if they wanted, it would be logistically impossible to search 100,000 people.
The provocative option is “fun” because police cannot possibly arrest and jail 100,000 people. And the provocative option becomes even more “fun” if the 100,000 people tell police ahead of time that they will defend themselves if police attempt to arrest any peaceable person for carrying a firearm openly. (defying malum prohibitum laws and all that)
This should be easy to pull off. Everyone tells me that there are over 10 million firearm owners in California. Only one in 100 firearm owners has to participate.
great. set it up, create a fb page, post the date. I’ll drive up.
When I first moved to California, I was stunned to see as many homeless people as I did. Downtown Sacramento was awash, as was San Francisco. Even Napa has them sleeping in hedges. They are not the result of “have and have nots” as Gov Gerry (the original Stoner) would have you believe, but the results of tax and penalty everything. They are the result of “open borders” having flooded the rental and housing markets with illegals who, when they are willing to live four breadwinners to a bedroom, can pay far more for housing than natives who want a “single family” house which has led to the highest housing costs in the Nation. They are the result of devastating legal and financial attacks by the State upon it’s citizens if they can not or will not bend to Government overreach. I recently read a report that a simple $100 traffic ticket in CA is over $300 when you try to pay it because of the “fees” added on to it by city, county, and State. It also said it can quickly turn into $1,000s if you miss the first court date with more penalties and fees. The article said that more than one family has become homeless when financial problems began after a traffic court ran amok.
They are actively working to disarm their citizenry. Hunting of all species has been drastically curtailed since the 1990’s, fishing has been reduced to catch and release (with no barbs only) in all but a very few irrigation canals (once known as rivers). They are constantly trying to pass some ordinance or law to fix a problem that they can’t see that they caused with their last ordinance or law, yet…they persist. I am here because of a Federal government job. I have been trying to leave since my 3rd month here, two years ago.
California is by far the very worst place for anyone who believes in any type of personal freedoms, not only Second Amendment freedoms but 1st and 4th as well. It will never stop either, until we elect a President with guts enough to start cutting off funding to California. Don’t want to follow laws on immigration? Then all Federal share monies for welfare, medical care, and education of illegal immigrants is hereby cancelled. Don’t want to allow hunting on State lands? Then all Pittman-Robertson Act funding for State wildlife agency and State land purchases is hereby cancelled. Want to keep protecting your votes and contributions to reelection campaigns by allowing continued expansion of suburbs? Water pumped from the Colorado river using Federal funds is hereby cancelled. Want to take away the rights of your people to bear arms, then your Federal share of law enforcement funding is hereby cancelled!!!
“California is by far the very worst place for anyone who believes in any type of personal freedoms” SB277, couldn’t agree more.
A small point; but one reason CA has a large homeless population is the temperate climate. You can live in many if not most parts of the state outdoors year-round without major risk of death from exposure, especially in the major cities. It’s not uniformly true, but I generally see fewer homeless in places with significant winter weather.
And then you woke up…. California is a study in contradictions. For Every Ronald Reagan we also have a Nixon, Pelosi, Boxer and Feinstein. But it is nice to dream. I was in a motorcycle accident caused by a hispanic male in a late 70’s green ford pickup that drove off. The CHP said that’s not a very good description, the other officer laughed and said I think we have a few of those here. I got a ticket for no insurance card because the wind blew it away.
Dear Sara:
I’ve been a Texan for about 15 years now, but before that, a Wyomingite. When I finish my teaching career in the not too distant future, I’ll return home. Both states have a much, much lower cost of living than California, and the feeling of individual liberty nourishes the soul.
Good luck, though moving to Wyoming makes its own kind of luck.
I still like to rave here about the tactical throw pillows that Feinstein is promoting as adequate self defense…and a backup for home invasions, we have rape whistles.
California is a lost cause. I was born and raised in Sacramento. I was there for Reagan and brown jr. The responsible are now out numbered by the irresponsible. In the perverted world of most California voters Marijuana intoxication and homosexual marriage are rights and that’s all they need. I forgot the highest number of people on welfare. They make good obedient slave voters.
No killing in self defense when necessary. You must retreat. No use of any violence to defend your loved ones. Having a firearm in your home is ok only if it’s disassembled and the parts kept in different rooms.
My family raised chickens and goats. We sold the eggs and goat milk. We drank the milk raw. Now police will put a gun in your face if you want to drink and sell raw milk in California. The place is becoming a slave state.
I’ve got a friend, born and raised in Bakersfield, who moved here to the free state of Kansas. Describes himself as having escaped from California.
I’m in Bakersfield! 🙁 Please help me escape too…..
Tell your friends you’re moving to Colorado. The fewer Californians who know Wyoming exists the better.
Congrats, Sara!
And for those Californians thinking about locating elsewhere, just know that for every one of you that leaves, three Latinos are lining up to take your place and turn Cali into the sh1th0le that they left behind in search of a better life.
That reminds me of the story I heard, that Komifornia was going to open up the whole border, and when all the Mexican had moved up, they were going to move over to Arizona, and slam the gates shut!
If you’re self employed, or will be working for a company with less than 50 employees, wait until you see the cost of health care insurance in Wyoming before counting your savings…
Left California 2 years ago and don’t regret it for a second. Basically, from no carry and ten day waits, to constitutional carry.
Ah,… Wyoming, Love that State….. My aunt Udy lived in Evanston.. Dad used to ship me up to her on the bus to spend summers with her..Yur gonna love the pace of life.
Awesome Sara.
Supressors, machine guns, standard looking AR-15’s without some bullet button, .50 BMG’s….
You just think you’re going to save money. Until you start buying guns!
Sara,
This is very important: Before you move, please, please consider selling every firearm you have that is not (or no longer) on the DOJ Roster of Firearms That Have Been Determined Not to Be Unsafe. (For you non-‘fornians, yes, that’s a thing.) If they’re in decent shape, the price you’ll get will likely be even more than it will cost for you to replace them with new versions of the same thing once you move.
For other law-abiding gun owners stuck in CA, private party transfer and out-of-state intrafamily gift (only from a child, parent or grandparent, no siblings or other relatives) are the only ways to get non-rostered firearms. Unless the law changes, which isn’t looking likely.
So if you have, say, a Gen 4 Glock (any) or M&P full-size or compact (9, .40 or .45), please sell it before you leave, because you can always buy a new one (with non-neutered mags, bonus) in WY, but the people you’re leaving behind have no chance. There are hundreds of other examples.
In addition to helping your fellow gun owners, it’s a great way to thumb your nose at the politicians and their foolish laws that are the reason for your move.
Thanks and congratulations on the move.
I agree with j-el. Sell the off roster stuff and keep them all in California.
Situations like this make me miss SSE that much more.
It seems like Tennessee is getting a lot of California refugees. We welcome supporters of 2A and the other 9 amendments of the Bill of Rights.
We left CA some 11 years ago.
Reason for leaving had nothing to do with gun laws.
We choose to move to Kansas, now a Constitional carry State.
Please stay in Cali we have enough of you in Wyoming getting jobs here and spreading your liberal ideas you think are conservative because you have lost all perspective. Thanks
Yeah…. I know Sara personally. She’s not a liberal, bro. She’s pro-gun, pro-freedom, and anti-big government. And she’s already got a job writing for TTAG.
Can’t say I blame Ken. Heard the same thing about the “liberty loving” Californians who ruined Colorado in the 80s and early 90s. Now it’s western Montana and Idaho. Hell, even Salt Lake reeks of patchouli. Outside of Jackson and Laramie Wyoming has remained pretty much unscathed. All good things I guess.
Smart move, CA isn’t very “United” when it comes to the “United” title of the USA. The State itself is a lost cause, face it, they suck.
Sounds like a plan! Good luck…
Good luck! I’m a second generation native Californian. I left when I was 19 and never went back. That was almost 50 years ago. I don’t miss it and you won’t either.
I need to vent about San Francisco the city of fruits and nuts I live near. My daughter went to school with Kate Steinle that got murdered in SF by an illegal alien. She is so upset. This State sucks. Thanks all you keep me sane.
I’m finally planning on leaving NY in 4 after my contract job ends. I’m practically counting down the days in excitement. Despite this I still plan on donating to SCOPE, NYSPRA and SAF because god forbid if I have to move back for family reasons…
We build our lives around our location. Find a comfortable spot, snuggle in, make it your own. Real estate locations are like cars: Some get more valuable, and some just get old.
I recently re-located from a comfortable spot in urban NWLA to a more remote location in Dinky Town about 8 miles south of the city limits. People on the road wave at each other. I’m on a first name basis with the guys at the post office, the water department, the feed store and the dumpster. I know three out of the four cops! It’s a different world from that in which I recently lived, but very much like the town where I grew up, and I like it!
The people around here drive pickups and have 4-wheelers. Last 4th of July the neighborhood was festooned with flags. I got my dad’s flag out of the cedar chest and flew it on the porch. I’m thinking about getting a flag pole.
I escaped 6 years ago from the stalag known as california. Love the state. I grew up hiking sequoia and kings canyon nat’l parks and hunting the high foothills (on private land) for everything from ground squirrels to bear. My family goes back 6 generations there for crying out loud. Gorgeous, rejuvinating, and going back to visit is good for my soul. But i will never move back until i can tolerate the people again. Which might be a while. The people from my red part of the state are far outnumbered by the blue and oft illicit voters primarily from LA and San Fran. Gang crime has skyrocketed, even in my little hometown, and honestly, california is slowly falling to crime and its failed policies. Its a real shame, but i do what i can even though im no longer living there…
I have a niece that took a summer job at a resort in Jackson Hole. She loves it there so much that I am not sure we are going to get her back. Having lived in Alaska for nearly ten years, I’m not easily impressed with mountain scenery, but I have to admit that the pictures she sends us makes it look like pretty spectacular.
The Tetons are special.
Jackson is getting overrun.
Winters can be brutal.
I hear there are signs on the roads leading in to Komifornia: Keep California green! Bring money!
Good call on moving to Wyoming. I spent 1 year in California (Roseville, outside of Sacramento, just south of Lake Tahoe). I hated it. Every chance I could, I was in Reno. Beautiful state, nothing beats Yosemite, or the 5 north of San Francisco. But the taxes and non-stop official-dom was enough for me…..I moved to St Louis and ended up with a 20% raise just from the lower costs of living and the lower tax rate. Eventually washed up in Texas! Whoooo….Even cheaper cost of living.
My wife doesn’t have to work, we live in a great area (north of Houston) the cost of living is dirt cheap, and they keep cutting taxes. Oh yes, and the Governor signed an Open Carry bill….Like OC or not, it’s an expansion of gun rights- which is great.
I grew up in Sacramento.
I spent my childhood camping, seeing historic sites, learning so much about what a great place it used to be. I saw the sequoias, beautiful giant trees. The foothills turning rainbow colors every spring. Spanish missions, ghost towns, wildlife sanctuaries. Camping every summer with the Boy Scouts. Watching the Kings lose, the Lakers win, The Angels play.. every Cali football team sucking hind tit other than the Niners. Hating the Niners. I missed California, until I became a man, and I learned that the beautiful place of my childhood was run by such corruption. The only thing that I crave, the one California treasure that still calls to me, are apples from this Able’s Apple Acre’s, up in Camino…. Thankfully they deliver.
And sorry, the poor residents of Cali are on their own. They got into this mess by not voting to control their state, they can damned well learn to vote their way out of it. There is no other way to do it.
“Not voting to control their state…” Are you kidding?
“and if you tolerate this, then your children will be next”
Sara, well done for doing the ‘right’ thing.
Yeah, the politics in CA are just absolutely terrible. I stopped voting years ago, since I realized my vote pretty much didn’t matter. The Calguns foundation fights a good fight and we have a quite a vibrant shooting community. I guess I’m in the minority on this site, but taken as a whole I still like living in CA. My wife and I both have graduate degrees from the UC system and we were both able to find great jobs here. Both of us work in fields that require us to live in a large urban environment and traffic, crowding, and inflated real estate prices are common problems in all the cities we considered living in. Let me tell you, I do not miss shoveling out the driveway every morning in the winter, like I’d have to in my home state. The weather is great it rarely gets hot (live 1 mile from ocean) and never gets cold, I can surf and ski in the same day if I wanted too, the Angeles Mountains have decent recreational opportunities, the awesome Sierra Nevada Range is only 4 hours away and Vegas is also only a 4 hour drive. I also have a ton of family in the state and my wife is asian and likes having access to the food and groceries of her homeland, so a place like Wyoming just wouldn’t work for us. Good luck with your move Sara, we in CA hate losing another good person.
Sara, I moved from central Cali to Wyoming 2 years ago. If you’re going to be in Laramie of Cheyenne I recommend Frontier Arms for a gun shop and Otto Road shooting range (it’s a membership only range but cheap and good)
As a CA resident (or is it subject?) I applaud your bravery to leave. Please get a sbr/suppressor and let me shoot it next time I’m in your area with my snowboard.
Boy, do I know the feeling. Living in New Jersey all I want is to get out for the sake of my family. However a sick extended family member makes that impossible right now. Many people tell me to leave the sick family member or take the person with us. I don’t leave family behind and uprooting an elderly person is not right. So, I stay.
The Land of the whispering bush has always been about Money, if you got it you got rights, no money–no rights
Besides how else is the state to balance their budget except on the backs of the gun owners, of course the more they take the more they want, gottta feed their back pockets ya Know,
Voting doesn’t work because they own the ballot box stuffer’s, especially the illegal immigrants who need the dole money and free healthcare, housing, Social Security you get the Picture!
We need to take a lesson from the Tar and Feather boys to work this state, oh I know that isn’t allowed because we might hurt their touchy feely spots adversely,
“I’m not giving up on California, I’m just leaving.”
Six in one, half dozen in the other.
You’ll send money, but they lose your vote.
What’s up with the references to voting as if that equates having freedom? Seriously, does any critical thinking person really believe voting on pre selected issues and candidates provides some form of liberty?
Sara,
Here’s a thought. Take a trip to San Francisco before you leave, and use your permit.
Yeah, it’s ultimately meaningless, since no one will know but what the hell.
It is a sad but growing trend in California that many people are giving up and moving out. The problem is that it further dilutes our conservative base, because it is predominantly the conservative thinkers who are moving and the liberals are moving in. This State may never again elect a Republican to a major national seat. Both of our Senators are extreme liberal women and the only Republican representatives we have come from largely rural conservative enclaves. When our liberal Governor Jerry “Moon Beam” Brown signed AB144 that took away open carry for us, I pretty much knew it was over.
Good luck in Wyoming. I’d kinda like to go there myself.
Bodrie
Welcome to Wyoming! Hope you avoid Cheyenne. It’s becoming a suburb of Denver, unfortunately.
One more good thing about Wyoming is that we have no state income tax. For a few years I had lived in the Communist cesspool known as The Peoples Republik of Kalifornia due to work. Thank God I was able to escape back to freedom (Wyoming). Haven’t looked back since.
I remember working in western Montana and northern Idaho on a project. I noticed that people were signalling me that I was “number one” (raised middle finger). Then I noticed that our boss rented a fleet of pickups and all had California license plates for us to use. Boy was I pissed.
I decided to leave Kalifornia back in 1997. I got tired of people telling me how I should live my life. My family had been in California since 1869. I moved to Western Colorado, but now I see that creeping socialism has arrived here on Colorado’s front range, Can Western Colorado hold out when the front range is after our water and our freedom? It sounds a lot like California before it became the socialist state of Kalifornia!
a bunch of Californians had the same idea, and came with you to W. Colorado, and are voting as they always have: they can leave the CA socialism trailer park, but it doesn’t leave them-they went there for a reason and Didn’t want to leave it. Your state left you before you left it. Ditto with Sara T.
Congrats on your move, Sara. Like to hear more after you settle in, opsec permitting, on how you like the area you chose, jobs, travel to Walmart to stock up, health care, schools etc.
I took a side way thru Wyo on a road trip last month to visit family, passed thru on purpose to check out some country- Got a peek before it got too dark of the Casper area – after a long drive through the grasslands along the bottom going one way north east. Then a top-to-bottom slice off the left side, on the way back, via Cody-Yellowstone-Grand Tetons-Jackson-Snake River out the bottom.
Grand big country. Nice folks. As I recall its colder in winter than most folks might imagine. On the other hand, its all relative as its practically tropical compared to the upper Dakota arctic deep heat sink, where I grew up. Keeps out the riff-raff and kills all the bacteria once a year too! Ya sure you betcha!
Something about that country just catches my imagination- probably from watching that Jeremiah Johnson movie too many times. Thinking about another swing thru soon- any thoughts from anyone where to camp for a day or week to be sure to get the flavor of it? Still trying to decide if I have the cojones to back pack alone into the Thorofare or somewhere lower, amongst the grizz.
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