Rocky Mountain Bye

To give an idea of what I think Colorado's statewide election next week will entail I offer the following two words: I moved. 



The Colorado GoP makes the national GoP look like bastions of principle with spines of titanium. As such the candidate they've put up for governor is, shall we say, less than inspiring. Even if he wasn't the recipient  of a smear campaign occasioned by his great grandfather's politics (he was a klansman and a democrat, but guess which one the MSM is constantly pointing out) he just doesn't seem viable outside a GoP primary where the internal pecking order must be maintained at all costs. Why did the GoP of Colorado back him? It was his turn. Meanwhile his opponent is wealthy and slick. 

My prediction is that the democrats will retain the house and governor's mansion, and likely gain the senate, in which case, come January, a new round of Bloombergian gunowner control laws will be up for consideration with little more than token resistance to slow them down. Polis, unlike Hickenlooper, won't be bought out by Bloomberg; Polis is already on Bloomberg's page when it comes to restrictions on the Right to arms, so no need to bribe someone with promises of financial support for a presidential bid.

(As an aside, Hickenlooper will try for the presidency in 2020. That was his price for backing Bloomie the Hut's gunowner control laws in 2013 despite their unpopularity with Coloradoans. A friend from NY asked me the other week what I knew of Hickenlooper, and after I finished she said, "So, Benedict Arnold without the charm, talent or scruples?" which I think isn't too far off base, though Ephialtes is probably more apt.)

I could go on at some length (as is my custom) about the problems Colorado is facing, but to keep this moderately short there's just too many foreigners (i.e. Californians) moving into the state for anything but an organized political party to stay competitive. The Colorado GoP is not an organized political party. It's a social club for folks that won't let advancing the party platform (or actually winning enough elections to be a majority party, for that matter) get in the way of who gets the best seats at the annual barbecue (and don't get me started on what they call barbecue...).

I do hope I'm greatly mistaken, but my faith in the Colorado GoP to make enough gains politically to roll back the restrictive firearms laws was not enough to overcome a deal on rental trucks and vehicle trailers.

The state I moved to is less likely to succumb to Colorado's problems, mainly because they've done a much better job of not telling Californians how cool the state actually is. (A cousin of mine, who moved to NYC and was an ardent Hillary supporter, asked what was here; if the state even had an airport, wherein I cheerfully told him we had no airport, no roads, no 'lectricity and the landscape was  a mix of scrub brush and moonscape, so there was no need for him to tell his friends to ever come visit).

I was talking with a neighbor and mentioned a strange smell in the air. he asked where I moved from and when I told him it was Colorado he said, "Oh, that's freedom. Y'all just haven't had much of it to whiff down there for some time now". 

Not that the state I'm in now is perfect, but it's a helluva lot better than Colorado, or even the Carolinas, as far as gunowners are concerned.  In fact, being a studious fellow, shortly after my arrival I resolved to wake up early one morning (i.e. 11 a.m. -ish) and rigorously examine the state's firearm laws to the exclusion of anything else. Having begun at 11:48 a.m. local time, by 12:14 p.m. I realized that I had absolutely nothing else to do that day. There really isn't much in the way of restrictions here (although I won't say it's ideal, just much more tolerable than in any other state I've lived in).

I'm still learning about the politics here, but absent a complete upheaval in the predictions I'm confident the state will have at least moderately pro-gunowner politicians elected this time around. I'm thinking if I devoted myself to gunowner issues within this state exclusively, I'd be posting even less than I have been the last few years. 

All of this is to say that I don't think there's much hope for firearms laws to get better in Colorado anytime soon. I could be wrong, but I was confident enough in my outlook to relocate after 17 years in the same area. If things do go the opposite of what I'm predicting, it'll still take a decade or more for Colorado to catch up with my new state in terms of respect for the Right to arms. 

I met some wonderful folks in Colorado, and I really liked the geography and climate, but the laws for a gunowner such as myself were intolerable, and the politics are less than optimistic than the Brave's chances of getting the pennant was in '88. 

Oh, the new state you may be wondering? Wyoming. Hell, I was driving up here every time I wanted to buy a standard capacity magazine anyway, figured the cost of moving would be negated by the money I'd save in gas. Plus, they have a Bison season here. Bison! Now, if you'll pardon me, I'm going to end this post so I can contemplate which Garand for buffalo...