Thread: Hello from the States

Hi @grunzter.
Thanks for the welcome.

My state of Pennsylvania (PA) is actually split on firearm ownership, but you wouldn't know it reading the US media.

As of now, we're free to own scary black rifles and use standard mags (often maligned by the press and politicians as "high capacity clips") but we can't hunt with them - bolt-only. To use an AR to hunt, I have to visit family down South. Also, hunting deer with any .22 caliber is forbidden in PA.

Also in PA, we have what gun-grabbers call the "gun show loophole" which allows a state citizen to make a private sale/purchase of a rifle or shotgun to another citizen of our state. Many such transactions take place at gun shows. It's not actually a loophole in the law, of course, it's a propaganda term that portrays that freedom as something that needs to be "fixed". My city holds huge gun shows every few months and folks from surrounding states come to drool over AR rifle/pistol parts not legal in their home states.

PA is a shall issue state for concealed carry pistol permits. The sheriff must show cause for denying one to a state citizen. This is all kind of strange as PA is an open-carry state which should mean that I could walk around with a pistol on my hip anywhere. That's not the case, though. If one does that in a populated area, someone will call in a law officer who will interview you as to why you're disturbing the peace...

Must sound like the Wild West to a kiwi, but it's our culture and not really all that crazy here. Of course, our media tells the world we gun owners are all knuckle-dragging slack-jawed yokels, but insulting us is just a ploy to move public sentiment their way.

No one likes politics except those trying to take away your freedoms, so it's important to be politically active. That's as true here where gun ownership is a Constitutional right as it is anywhere else. We have citizens and politicians running for our highest offices here who don't care that firearm ownership is a right and are looking to strip those rights regardless.

As far as your own firearm ownership fight in NZ, it seems to me you guys were bushwhacked. Get used to it. Your opponents are working in cooperation with a larger, world-wide anti-gun push. They will not listen to reason or play fair. Sounds tin-foil hatttish, I know, but it's the truth. You're now being subjected to propaganda that was honed in the UK, USA and OZ and your average Joe citizen and many a Fudd will eat it up. Fair warning.