Hello from WNY (upstate, south of Buffalo)

VietnamEraVet

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Joined
Jun 7, 2019
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Location
Charlotte, NC
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Hi Everybody,

I look forward to being on this site.

About me: I guess I'm now an older guy these days. I was in the Navy during and post Vietnam, but not in country. I was an electronics and crypto guy principally stationed on the West coast in San Diego on the USS Chicago, CG-11, 7th Fleet Flag.

After that I lived and worked in upstate NY. I'm originally from Kentucky if that matters. I'm divorced with two grown kids that I raised. Took care of both of my parents until they died in their mid 90's. After I got rid of the old ball and chain, I was free to do what I wanted, and I got back into owning firearms. I have a mild collection of revolvers (mostly stainless), and some semi's and various long guns. I'm SE of Charlotte in Indian Trail where I moved for work reasons last year.

I'm enjoying it here a lot, and so far the heat does not bother me. It is definitely a pleasure to be in a gun friendly state, -especially compared to NY. I still have my NY CCW, and I now have my NC CHP, although getting it here was very easy compared to NY state, where they normally take up to two years in my old county.

Look forward to spending some time on this forum, and getting to know some of you. If anyone has some good suggestions on where to shoot, I'm all ears. Also, want to learn more about "sporting clays", - something we did not have in NY before I left.
 
Welcome to CFF, enjoy the forum
 
Welcome aboard. . enjoy your somewhat expanded freedoms!

I lived in the Rochester area for a couple of years, needless to say, beautiful area, horrible politics.
 
Welcome aboard. . enjoy your somewhat expanded freedoms!

I lived in the Rochester area for a couple of years, needless to say, beautiful area, horrible politics.
The land, food, and people are great. But upstate is being destroyed economically by the politicians, which contributed to my leaving for good. I think my actual license plate (and my avatar), says it all.
 
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Welcome to the CFF family. One word of caution...you know how every family has the crazy uncle? Well, we have two of them. Good luck!! :D

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Welcome aboard!
 
Welcome and thanks for joining up with us here.
 
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Welcome! I'm sure you will enjoy it here.
 
Welcome to the USA and the forum, we're happy to have you with us.
 
I’ve been noticing little thing about the food around here. I haven’t seen any Italian bread yet. There is no haddock anywhere.

For being so warm, there are no soft-serve ice cream stands.


On the flip-side, the BBQ is better that any place I ever went to in NY. And for all the complaints of NYers about the pizza, I’ve had plenty of decent pizza down here.


I still haven’t found a decent bakery or donut, though. Paula’s Donuts in Buffalo was worth driving 2 1/2 hours from where I lived (Syracuse).
For the most part you won’t find any good Italian bread or food down here. Olive Garden is NOT Italian food. No, haddock fish frys are hard to come by though there is a place in Greensboro that does them along with beef on weck, wings and pizza. Pretty good and they are from Rochester.
I miss Anderson’s soft serve ice cream and no you can’t find a good bakery down here.
BBQ is better down here for sure along with the hush puppies.
Going back to Buffalo in another month. Great place to grow up but even better to leave when old enough and only visit when you want to.
 
Thank you one and all for the nice welcomes!
We are an eclectic mix of malcontents and other deplorables. Once you met us and get to know us, you will find out that you have joined up with one of the best damn group of people around. Soon you'll find out the reason why a lot of us call this place home. Best damn place to be.

Sent from my SM-J320V using Tapatalk
 
@VietnamEraVet
What made you decide on moving to Charlotte, NC vs. other city/town in either NC or SC?
I've known a guy here in Indian Trail area for the past 20+ years who did the exact same work here, that I did in NY. He got approached to do work with the No. 1 manufacturer in our field here in Charlotte, but they decided they wanted a two man company.

He told them that he knew a guy (me) who would be interested in doing that work here in Charlotte. They came to Buffalo, interviewed me, and immediately offered the work to both of us if we could partner together. We went to our respective lawyers, and made a deal to become equal partners. One month later I had moved here and began working like crazy. It's been good.

Basically, I was free to move. I was divorced; my kids were grown; my parents were deceased too. Business in NY was poor compared to here, and as a gun owner, I was extremely disgusted with the situation in NY, which is only getting worse by the day, now that all three branches of state government are in (D) control.

From a handgun owner's perspective, the situation can be even more brutal. It is a "may issue" state, unlike NC, and most other states which are "shall issue". A number of years ago, I applied for my CCW permit. NY law gives them 6 months to issue or deny. And the hoops they put you through are just crazy. In my home county, when I applied, they told me it would take between 1-2 years, - for no other reason, than "just because, that's why". I took them to task over that, and made an enemy of my local police chief in the process (coincidentally, he was just removed from office last month for numerous unspecified issues). And the problem can be, that if someone with a say in the process has an issue with you, they can screw with you. (By comparison, here in Union County, it took them less than 8 weeks to issue my CHP.)

In my case, he didn't like me because I had the nerve to tell him that he needed to do his job in a timely fashion. The local issuing officer, - a NY Supreme Court Judge had no issue with me having a full Unrestricted CCW permit, and issued mine in a 1 day turnaround when it got to him. But my local police chief never forgot the Judge overruling him.

And this is what is wrong with "may issue": two years later, while minding my own business at home one evening, a man showed up at my home uninvited, and threatened me. I convinced him to stay off my property through the judicious use of profanity, and I called 911. I was carrying concealed at the time, and did not draw or even mention that I was armed. The local police came, disarmed me temporarily, sent him away with a warning, and returned my M&P Shield 9 and mag to me. I figured that was the end of it. It wasn't. My local police chief wrote to the court, demanding that my permit be revoked because I had the nerve to use profanity to keep a man away from me and off of my property, AND, because I was carrying ammunition for my handgun at the time! OMG! My permit was suspended, and I had to turn in my guns, and go to court with a lawyer to get them back. When I asked the judge if he would have preferred that I shot the man threatening me instead, he laughed. And when I pointed out that a gun without ammunition was basically a hunk of metal. he laughed again, and immediately reinstated my permit.

Suffice it to say, there are a lot of anti gun types in NY state. There was just a case in Buffalo a couple of months ago, where a man with a CCW got up from a chair in his doctor's office to go the bathroom. Another patient saw him printing as he got up. She called 911, and said he was threatening everyone there at gunpoint. Detectives showed up; grabbed him while he was sitting calmly in a chair, and threw him face first onto the tile floor, injuring him. Then they checked his permit, and left. He is suing. The point is, - it is a whole different attitude up there. And I don't miss it anymore.
 
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I've known a guy here in Indian Trail area for the past 20+ years who did the exact same work here, that I did in NY. He got approached to do work with the No. 1 manufacturer in our field here in Charlotte, but they decided they wanted a two man company.

He told them that he knew a guy (me) who would be interested in doing that work here in Charlotte. They came to Buffalo, interviewed me, and immediately offered the work to both of us if we could partner together. We went to our respective lawyers, and made a deal to become equal partners. One month later I had moved here and began working like crazy. It's been good.

Basically, I was free to move. I was divorced; my kids were grown; my parents were deceased too. Business in NY was poor compared to here, and as a gun owner, I was extremely disgusted with the situation in NY, which is only getting worse by the day, now that all three branches of state government are in (D) control.

From a handgun owner's perspective, the situation can be even more brutal. It is a "may issue" state, unlike NC, and most other states which are "shall issue". A number of years ago, I applied for my CCW permit. NY law gives them 6 months to issue or deny. And the hoops they put you through are just crazy. In my home county, when I applied, they told me it would take between 1-2 years, - for no other reason, than "just because, that's why". I took them to task over that, and made an enemy of my local police chief in the process (coincidentally, he was just removed from office last month for numerous unspecified issues). And the problem can be, that if someone with a say in the process has an issue with you, they can screw with you. (By comparison, here in Union County, it took them less than 8 weeks to issue my CHP.)

In my case, he didn't like me because I had the nerve to tell him that he needed to do his job in a timely fashion. The local issuing officer, - a NY Supreme Court Judge had no issue with me having a full Unrestricted CCW permit, and issued mine in a 1 day turnaround when it got to him. But my local police chief never forgot the Judge overruling him.

And this is what is wrong with "may issue": two years later, while minding my own business at home one evening, a man showed up at my home uninvited, and threatened me. I convinced him to stay off my property through the judicious use of profanity, and I called 911. I was carrying concealed at the time, and did not draw or even mention that I was armed. The local police came, disarmed me temporarily, sent him away with a warning, and returned my M&P Shield 9 and mag to me. I figured that was the end of it. It wasn't. My local police chief wrote to the court, demanding that my permit be revoked because I had the nerve to use profanity to keep a man away from me and off of my property, AND, because I was carrying ammunition for my handgun at the time! OMG! My permit was suspended, and I had to turn in my guns, and go to court with a lawyer to get them back. When I asked the judge if he would have preferred that I shot the man threatening me instead, he laughed. And when I pointed out that a gun without ammunition was basically a hunk of metal. he laughed again, and immediately reinstated my permit.

Suffice it to say, there are a lot of anti gun types in NY state. There was just a case in Buffalo a couple of months ago, where a man with a CCW got up from a chair in his doctor's office to go the bathroom. Another patient saw him printing as he got up. She called 911, and said he was threatening everyone there at gunpoint. Detectives showed up; grabbed him while he was sitting calmly in a chair, and threw him face first onto the tile floor, injuring him. Then they checked his permit, and left. He is suing. The point is, - it is a whole different attitude up there. And I don't miss it anymore.
Glad to have you here and I do love your license plate.
I’ve said it before in another thread, people in upstate NY are the salt of the earth. I worked for Crowley Foods back in the early 80’s and spent time in Binghamton and Arkport but obviously that was before NY took a hard left.
 
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