[DaveInEdmonds]

It seems to me that this board could use individual forums for each state, or, at a minimum, regions. The board seems to draw a LOT of people that are very new to firearms ownership and they have tons of questions about what they can and can't do. Then, you get bunches of questions like this one about Washington state law, followed by five pages of people giving opinions about Florida, Montana, Texas, North Carolina and ten other states, plus arguing about whether or not banks are Federal property (seriously?) and a bunch of other unrelated junk.

I would think that individual state forums would provide much better information to the newb's that frequent here.

Just a thought.

 

[GraySkies]

Most of the other enthusiast-type forums I frequent have something like that. I have no complaints about this site as is, and I usually just ignore the type of stuff you mentioned, but I would consider it a great enhancement if there was such a thing here.

 

[RETSUPT99]

Individual state info is available via several iNet sites, and various forum members...I doubt the need for more forum subdivisions...but I'm not part of admin.

 

[bmcgilvray]

It's better to avoid dispensing anything but the most general legal advice in the forum format and better not to rely on any advice offered in a forum post.

We offer this subdivision on regions and it's not half bad though I forget to poke around in it very often. Gets forum members together which might be the "highest and best use" of a regional forum format.
Member Meeting Place

 

[DaveInEdmonds]

It's better to avoid dispensing anything but the most general legal advice in the forum format and better not to rely on any advice offered in a forum post.

The posts I see are things like "can I carry in a bar in Indiana" or "where do I go to get my permit in Arkansas" or "can I be arrested for ignoring a gunbusters sign". All of these are specific to the state the OP lives in and inevitably result in 20 people in different states providing irrelevant anecdotes from their own location and arguing about semantics.

 

[rstickle]

Have you tried doing a search? While we don't have State Forums, there have been quite a few threads started on specific States in the past, but most fall out of use due to lack of traffic.

 

[DaveInEdmonds]

Have you tried doing a search? While we don't have State Forums, there have been quite a few threads started on specific States in the past, but most fall out of use due to lack of traffic.

I am not trying to find anything in particular. My point is that a good portion of the questions asked here seem to be state, or even city, specific and that people's questions on these topics rarely get answered by local people that actually know something about the subject.

If you haven't, visit opencarry.org and look at how their site is laid out. The state forums there get tons of traffic and people can ask questions in their local forum to get answers to local questions.

 

[dV8r]

It seems to me that this board could use individual forums for each state, or, at a minimum, regions. The board seems to draw a LOT of people that are very new to firearms ownership and they have tons of questions about what they can and can't do. Then, you get bunches of questions like this one about Washington state law, followed by five pages of people giving opinions about Florida, Montana, Texas, North Carolina and ten other states, plus arguing about whether or not banks are Federal property (seriously?) and a bunch of other unrelated junk.

I would think that individual state forums would provide much better information to the newb's that frequent here.

Just a thought.

We have way TOO MUCH division in this country already. lets not try to divide gun owners, especially CC gun owners. We need to stay together.

 

[DaveInEdmonds]

You all obviously miss my point. Never mind.

 

[dV8r]

I would think that most States have gun owners forum of some sort already, I know Michigan does.
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That is where area specific questions are better dealt with. I come here to get a more "general" nation wide view of things and would rather not have to go through many more areas. Although the "What's New" button works quite well here.

 

[ccw9mm]

I would think that individual state forums would provide much better information to the newb's that frequent here.

We have way TOO MUCH division in this country already. lets not try to divide gun owners, especially CC gun owners. We need to stay together.

The concept has nothing whatsoever to do with divisions between people.

It's about clarity of the "filing" system, helping to ensure quality info gets posted in the right spot, with a minimum of effort, without having to resort to culling through mounds of (essentially) hijack entries that have zero to do with the original post.

 

[rstickle]

Maybe we should be looking at a "sticky" of just links to the biggest and best sites from each state. I know I can provide Maryland's... Maryland Shooters

 

[Kennydale]

TexasCHLforum.com ? Index page

 

[MJClark]

I also post on the Michigan Gun Owners website too.

 

[skeetsak]

Most of the other enthusiast-type forums I frequent have something like that.

I actually noticed that this forum does not have a state by state sub-forum soon after joining and would like one

 

[andrewcdub]

Personally I would rather take the time to look up the laws myself or talk to a lawyer/whomever about gun laws. Depending on who you're talking to, I would take what I hear on the internet with a grain of salt. Even in the regional subforums of sites i've been to are filled with other state opinions. Also, I think it defeats the "search" button.

 

[TN_Mike]

Count me among those who would welcome individual state sub-sections. I think it would be nice to have a sub-forum devoted to each state which might make it easier for members from the same state or part of a state to meet and become shooting buddies.

A few people have pointed out that other big gun forums have this function so it isn't needed to duplicate it here but I submit that this site is head and shoulders above any other one the net and as such, those other forums do a comparatively poor job of moderating and policing the site in general and as a result, if we had state specific sub-forums, they would be as much better as the forum as a whole is.

I honestly have no idea of the added amount of work that would be needed to build this functionality or to moderate it so if it is very difficult I can understand not undertaking it but, if it is something that is attempted, I would offer to help as much as I could.

 

[Stealth1978]

It would be helpful to newbie gun owners like mentioned before to have State Sub-sections. How is it dividing gun owners? The different regions/states have different laws. Would it not be helpful for newbies to have a place to check out their states since they are already here? Also, would it not help other gun owners they may be going into another state to have a heads up about other states they may be visiting, or moving to?

 

[ccw9mm]

I'd also like to see state sub-forums under an umbrella State-Related Laws/Gatherings type forum. Many other forums seem to have such things, and for those looking to get state-specific info without all the "noise" it can be very helpful. Needn't "divide" anyone at all.

 

[JD]

It's been brought up in the past and while it always seems like a good idea it's probably not going to happen here for a couple of reasons.

One, almost every state has it's own state specific forum out there. PAFOA, BuckeyeFirearms, INGO, TNGunowners, IAShooters, etc.

I would strongly suggest EVERY member find "the state forum" for their state and join there, it's typically the best resource for state specific information. Not saying that you won't get a good answer here but the best answers usually come from those on the state specific forums, or rather that's been my experience regarding the states I've lived in.

Adding 50 sub-forums means adding 50 additional staff members to have a state rep to oversee each subforum and even then it might not eliminate the issue of buttheads dropping their .02 about their state in a thread that doesn't even relate.

There are some states that don't have much of a presence on this forum, like Iowa and others....I might be more inclined to support the addition of state forums for states that have a large presence on the forum but then you get into the "X" state has their own forum why doesn't "Y" argument.

Either way it seems like a head ache.