Is Texas Next?
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@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
@scottalanmiller said in Is Texas Next?:
@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
The only thing that will be an issue for me is that if Texas does leave the US it will end up being a third world country in parts that aren't DFW or Austin.
End up being? How is it not now?
It is now. It just isn't classified as such.
Still wouldn't be classified as such... first world just means American influence... not poor or crappy.
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I don't want to derail the thread but looking up stats, I noticed the lower the legal gun ownership, the higher the gun death rates were. D.C. had to lowest gun ownership, and the highest death rate. .
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@BBigford said in Is Texas Next?:
@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
@BBigford said in Is Texas Next?:
@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
I'm game for it. I don't really know of any major product that we still get from Texas. Thinking of major historical exports all of them have been taken over and done more efficiently by other states/countries.
The only thing that will be an issue for me is that if Texas does leave the US it will end up being a third world country in parts that aren't DFW or Austin.
Idaho uses them as a staple for gun law comparisons. So as an Idahoan, that affects me. Everything else, maybe just oil and other fossil fuels?
Haha, does Idaho often argue to become more like Texas?
Yeah. As of the first of July all Idahoans can carry concealed without a permit. I have a permit, and don't agree necessarily with that law. People need proper training not just on the weapons themselves, but the laws.
Now there is a place to avoid. damn.
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@Son-of-Jor-El said in Is Texas Next?:
I don't want to derail the thread but looking up stats, I noticed the lower the legal gun ownership, the higher the gun death rates were. D.C. had to lowest gun ownership, and the highest death rate. .
Is that at a state by state granularity? At the national level that's definitely not true. Compare the US and UK.
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@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
@BBigford said in Is Texas Next?:
@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
@BBigford said in Is Texas Next?:
@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
I'm game for it. I don't really know of any major product that we still get from Texas. Thinking of major historical exports all of them have been taken over and done more efficiently by other states/countries.
The only thing that will be an issue for me is that if Texas does leave the US it will end up being a third world country in parts that aren't DFW or Austin.
Idaho uses them as a staple for gun law comparisons. So as an Idahoan, that affects me. Everything else, maybe just oil and other fossil fuels?
Haha, does Idaho often argue to become more like Texas?
Yeah. As of the first of July all Idahoans can carry concealed without a permit. I have a permit, and don't agree necessarily with that law. People need proper training not just on the weapons themselves, but the laws.
A common comparison with Texas and Idaho is the "Stand Your Ground" law in Texas. You can stand and fight in a just cause, but in Idaho it is frowned upon, and in some cases very discouraged unless you're in the confines of your own home. Not just your property in some counties, but the structure of your actual home. Most of the state is pretty lax though. We live in a nice neighborhood (middle class) and are surrounded by law enforcement (sheriff's and city police) and someone tried to kick in our door at 2am on a Thursday. I grabbed a gun and called the sheriff. They said that was the right thing to do but I could have dumped the person on the side walk. I just won't do that unless I have no other option like that person entering our house. But some drugged out guy, maybe drunk as well, nah. The officers can deal with that.
That's interesting. I'm not a big fan of most of our gun laws (or lack thereof) in the US but I do think, if we need guns, we need a strict, training and licensing program. That's for another thread though.
I've been putting quite a bit of thought into how we could make better gun laws. Intelligent ones.
It's tempting to use/abuse this talented bunch of brains for such a purpose.
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@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
That's interesting. I'm not a big fan of most of our gun laws (or lack thereof) in the US but I do think, if we need guns, we need a strict, training and licensing program. That's for another thread though.
More importantly, an insurance program like with cars. I really think that that is important.
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@scottalanmiller said in Is Texas Next?:
@Son-of-Jor-El said in Is Texas Next?:
I don't want to derail the thread but looking up stats, I noticed the lower the legal gun ownership, the higher the gun death rates were. D.C. had to lowest gun ownership, and the highest death rate. .
Is that at a state by state granularity? At the national level that's definitely not true. Compare the US and UK.
Impossible to compare the 2. Apples and oranges.
I swear, I'm not trying to derail this thread!
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@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
@scottalanmiller said in Is Texas Next?:
@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
I'm game for it. I don't really know of any major product that we still get from Texas.
Oil and burritos.
That's true, they do have the worlds largest oil refinery on their coast don't they. That will, hopefully, become less and less of an issue as we move to more sustainable energy sources. Although they do have a lot of open ground for massive wind and solar farms.
NOt the biggest but big. Scotland is pretty epic. Aberdeen is the Houston of Europe.
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@DustinB3403 said in Is Texas Next?:
@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
I'm game for it. I don't really know of any major product that we still get from Texas. Thinking of major historical exports all of them have been taken over and done more efficiently by other states/countries.
The only thing that will be an issue for me is that if Texas does leave the US it will end up being a third world country in parts that aren't DFW or Austin.
Cattle?
They have a lot, but they consume a lot. So many places in the US produce crazy amounts of cattle that while TX might be the biggest (not sure that it is) it's not a production issue. Plus it isn't like the trade barriers would block it. The US buys a lot of Argentina as well.
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@scottalanmiller said in Is Texas Next?:
@Son-of-Jor-El said in Is Texas Next?:
I don't want to derail the thread but looking up stats, I noticed the lower the legal gun ownership, the higher the gun death rates were. D.C. had to lowest gun ownership, and the highest death rate. .
Is that at a state by state granularity? At the national level that's definitely not true. Compare the US and UK.
Americans are just more aggressive, in my opinion. Short answer, yes it's based on state granularity. Mississippi has the highest murder rate, DC is way up there. North Dakota is the lowest. But that is also a state that is living in the early 1900's still. A lot of my friends trucked oil over there. I have my Class-A CDL with Hazmat (used to work in heavy machinery before IT), and they wanted me to go over there. No way. Not even for good money. If you turn your rig around on someone's property, they can and will hold you at gun point until you give them whatever ransom they set. The local authorities look the other way because they believe the same. They held my buddy's co-worker at gunpoint until the company drove a check over for $10k.
Collectively I would say as an American I see way more aggression in our society. When Europeans come over to visit us (some family members married overseas), they think it's crazy we sleep with guns and lock our doors. The funny thing is, Boise is nothing compared to some places in western WA & OR that I've lived. VA & MS put those states to shame even. But with my Idaho Enhanced Concealed Carry permit, I can carry in 41 states. Just not the Northeast.
Hard to compare but that is my $0.02
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@MattSpeller said in Is Texas Next?:
@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
@BBigford said in Is Texas Next?:
@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
@BBigford said in Is Texas Next?:
@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
I'm game for it. I don't really know of any major product that we still get from Texas. Thinking of major historical exports all of them have been taken over and done more efficiently by other states/countries.
The only thing that will be an issue for me is that if Texas does leave the US it will end up being a third world country in parts that aren't DFW or Austin.
Idaho uses them as a staple for gun law comparisons. So as an Idahoan, that affects me. Everything else, maybe just oil and other fossil fuels?
Haha, does Idaho often argue to become more like Texas?
Yeah. As of the first of July all Idahoans can carry concealed without a permit. I have a permit, and don't agree necessarily with that law. People need proper training not just on the weapons themselves, but the laws.
A common comparison with Texas and Idaho is the "Stand Your Ground" law in Texas. You can stand and fight in a just cause, but in Idaho it is frowned upon, and in some cases very discouraged unless you're in the confines of your own home. Not just your property in some counties, but the structure of your actual home. Most of the state is pretty lax though. We live in a nice neighborhood (middle class) and are surrounded by law enforcement (sheriff's and city police) and someone tried to kick in our door at 2am on a Thursday. I grabbed a gun and called the sheriff. They said that was the right thing to do but I could have dumped the person on the side walk. I just won't do that unless I have no other option like that person entering our house. But some drugged out guy, maybe drunk as well, nah. The officers can deal with that.
That's interesting. I'm not a big fan of most of our gun laws (or lack thereof) in the US but I do think, if we need guns, we need a strict, training and licensing program. That's for another thread though.
I've been putting quite a bit of thought into how we could make better gun laws. Intelligent ones.
It's tempting to use/abuse this talented bunch of brains for such a purpose.
I just mentioned the insurance idea to my dad and he loved that one.
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@BBigford said in Is Texas Next?:
Americans are just more aggressive, in my opinion.
Agreed, but it has to come from somewhere. We are more aggressive than the British, more aggressive than Mexico, more aggressive than Germany.... yet those are the groups that make up most of the population. The aggression seems to mostly be generated internally. I think that the comparisons are valuable in both cases. What do nation by nation gun stats tell us; what do state by state ones tell us?
One thing that is misleading, potentially, is do loose gun laws in one state create risk in a neighbouring one? It's trivial to buy a gun in Florida and drive it into Georgia, for example.
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@BBigford said in Is Texas Next?:
Sweden issues every citizen a rifle, then conducts a training program to show them how to use it.
If that is true, how do you explain that Americans own 400% more guns per person than the Swedes do? Sweden is definitely high on the gun ownership list overall, but their ownership rate is not nearly high enough to support this. In the US where there are more guns than people (seriously!) household gun ownership is still just one in three. Statistically that suggests that only about one in ten Swedish households own a gun and only something like one in thirty people would have one.
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@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
@DustinB3403 said in Is Texas Next?:
@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
I'm game for it. I don't really know of any major product that we still get from Texas. Thinking of major historical exports all of them have been taken over and done more efficiently by other states/countries.
The only thing that will be an issue for me is that if Texas does leave the US it will end up being a third world country in parts that aren't DFW or Austin.
Cattle?
Not really anymore, California has taken over the milk and the mid-west has taken over the beef. Edit: Had to look at stats again.
California took over the dairy from NY and Wisconsin. NY still has the highest density of production in Wyoming County.
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@BBigford said in Is Texas Next?:
@DustinB3403 said in Is Texas Next?:
@coliver said in Is Texas Next?:
I'm game for it. I don't really know of any major product that we still get from Texas. Thinking of major historical exports all of them have been taken over and done more efficiently by other states/countries.
The only thing that will be an issue for me is that if Texas does leave the US it will end up being a third world country in parts that aren't DFW or Austin.
Cattle?
Nah, those mangy desert cattle are nothing compared to the Hereford and Black Angus we have up here.
Yes, it is too hot for really high quality cattle raising. It's just volume down there. Like Napa Valley and wine. Quantity over quality.
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@scottalanmiller said in Is Texas Next?:
@BBigford said in Is Texas Next?:
Americans are just more aggressive, in my opinion.
Agreed, but it has to come from somewhere. We are more aggressive than the British, more aggressive than Mexico, more aggressive than Germany.... yet those are the groups that make up most of the population. The aggression seems to mostly be generated internally. I think that the comparisons are valuable in both cases. What do nation by nation gun stats tell us; what do state by state ones tell us?
One thing that is misleading, potentially, is do loose gun laws in one state create risk in a neighbouring one? It's trivial to buy a gun in Florida and drive it into Georgia, for example.
Most states I've purchased guns in, require you to be a resident of that state but the question itself does pose some interesting points.
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@BBigford said in Is Texas Next?:
Most states I've purchased guns in, require you to be a resident of that state but the question itself does pose some interesting points.
I was thinking of Floridians messing with GA, but you are right that Georgians going to Florida to bypass the local gun laws would be more of an issue. In this particular example, Florida does not require any background check at all for purchase so would not have that requirement in this one particular example. But in NY and PA, it would.
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Back to the original topic.... one thing that I think would be interesting is that without membership in the larger US, Texas would be just a few years away from being an hispanic majority country. What are the chances that they would become aligned with Mexico moreso than with the US, would vote Spanish as the primary language and would become generally liberal (blue/left) rather than conservative (red/right?)
I think that not only is Texas changing in general, but that one move might be what secures them the unexpected place of being a super liberal, Spanish speaking stronghold used as a buffer zone between the US and Mexico (which is why Texas was allowed into the Union in the first place.)
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@scottalanmiller said in Is Texas Next?:
One thing that is misleading, potentially, is do loose gun laws in one state create risk in a neighbouring one? It's trivial to buy a gun in Florida and drive it into Georgia, for example.
It would be really nice to stop the trade of pot for handguns between our countries
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@scottalanmiller said in Is Texas Next?:
@BBigford said in Is Texas Next?:
Sweden issues every citizen a rifle, then conducts a training program to show them how to use it.
If that is true, how do you explain that Americans own 400% more guns per person than the Swedes do? Sweden is definitely high on the gun ownership list overall, but their ownership rate is not nearly high enough to support this. In the US where there are more guns than people (seriously!) household gun ownership is still just one in three. Statistically that suggests that only about one in ten Swedish households own a gun and only something like one in thirty people would have one.
400% I would believe as I have about 12 guns, because I really really like guns. I was raised on a ranch/farm and we lived about 3 miles from a regional gun club and rifle range. I have different guns for different uses, like a bull-pup shotgun for home defense, a mid-range rifle, long range rifle, mid-range shotgun for hunting, various revolvers for hiking (larger caliber for places like Montana & Alaska since we don't have as large of bears & moose in northern Idaho when I go home), then various semi-automatic pistols depending on what I'm wearing that day. Something like basketball shorts & a t-shirt vs. coat, jeans, etc allow you to carry a different caliber and frame size.
I also believe in lots of training, I do a minimum of 4 hours of training each week with my girlfriend whether we're doing urban training, vehicle take downs (though that would be highly rare on the civilian side of things), hiking & defense against charging bears, or home defense.
