Hi,

I am moving from Pa to Santa Fe and was wondering if you guys could clue me in on school districts, neighborhoods and knife laws.

Also I think I'll start SASS, I'll need a 357 lever gun. Any shops I should look at?
Any info is appreciated,
Thanks.

Santa Fe is full of liberals, weird building codes and high housing costs.  The rest of the state is good to go.  I would look into living south of Santa Fe and drving in to svoid the high housing.  I am not sure about the gun shop there.  Albuquerque about 1.5 hr drive has a lot.  

MAHA

The only gun shop that I know of in Santa Fe is the Outdoorsmen in the DeVargas mall. Prices are high, but the guys are nice and selection is usually pretty good.

Santa Fe is indeed full of liberals which is the worst part. I live on the North side which is expensive, but I'm closer to work by a lot so it's worth it to me. Many people I know live on the south side of downtown towards Alta Vista where you can find mid-priced historic homes. The far south side has many more cheap homes, but crime is a little worse (which still isn't too bad) and the scenery isn't as nice. I moved here about 18 months ago from Florida and other than the liberals I really like it here.

There's tons of outdoor stuff to do. Great hunting and fishing and hiking. The scenery is amazing and I love the mountains.

Schools are for the most part a shit show. The best elementary schools are on the North side, Carlos Gilbert and Wood Gormley. All others are meh. Middle school and up are even worse and anyone who can afford it usually send their kids to private schools after 6th grade.

Knife laws are not well defined here IMHO. They basically say any knife is g2g if you open carry. Concealed knives are a gray area and if I remember correctly, the law is vague and basically says you can be charged for concealing any knife with no defined size. I was when I read it. If you have a concealed permit, I think it covers knives here, but others will have to chime in on that one.

CCW here is also . Your permit is good for 2 years then you have to take a class to renew. Also you have to qualify with the biggest caliber you want to carry and autos/revolvers separately .  If you have a reciprocal out of state permit you can use that. That's what I've done until they try to change the law.

IIRC Santa Fe has the highest minimum wage in the state and the highest sales tax in the state.

I wouldn't live in SF under any circumstance, period.

Buying or renting? Whats your housing budget? Where will you be working in SF (area)?

I would look into a place off HWY 14 South of SF, still can be lots of liberals but the further & more rural you get the fewer of them you'll find. Some areas are filled with good solid rancher type folks, outdoorsmen, etc,  Like This so take your time and really seek out those backroads. Another area to look into is SE of SF around El Dorado, Lamy, Galisteo, for lots of scattered pockets of good rural folks. If you're willing to drive further look around the areas further east off of I25. Do not bother looking north of SF, nice areas but its mostly reservations so housing will be limited until you get up to Espanola, which is a great place to live if you like cooking/using meth.

ABQ is an option, in fact I personally would get a place there first until you can get the lay of the land and spend time seeking out permanent housing. Someone above said it's a 90 minute drive but its not, you can get from the I40/I25 interchange to the SF Plaza in 60 minutes. Drive time from I25 and Paseo Del Norte to the Santa Fe Relief Route is only 30 minutes. The only time it takes 90 minutes is if there is a bad wreck or really bad snow. You can also take our boondoggle choo-choo train (The Rail Runner) but it won't save you any time, the ride from downtown ABQ to the SF Depot takes about 1:20, then add whatever time to takes to get to/from the stations from home/work.

Once you get out of SF there is a ton of great outdoors stuff to do, places to go, etc.

Thanks everybody. I ended up renting an apartment off of rt 25. The gun shop at the mall was a nice stop. They had some BLRs, sig MPX and a commercial preWWII Luger in the shop.

I have to travel north so ABQ was not possible. The commute would be to rough. But, thanks for the input.

Welcome to NM...
Is Tina's (iirc) no longer on airport road? Used to be a gun shop/shooting range there.

The previous statements about hostile lib territory are true. But so are those about fantastic outdoor activity. The shop in devargas is really the only one to go to. Tina's on the south side has an indoor range and the folks are nice enough, but they are mostly kept afloat by local police biz I think. If you need a place to practice anything dynamic or long range, the diablo canyon spots off of old buckman road are a good bet. Just be aware it's unregulated so occasionally there are idiots out there taking selfie vids of themselves shooting the dirt with their shitbox SKS's. Other than that it was always my go to spot since you can practice draws, movement, anything really. I recently made an exodus from Santa Fe to ABQ, and god do I not miss the majority of people in that town. But I do miss the ease of access to mountains and shooting spots. Also many good spots for chow. I'd say just try not to spend too much time in the town and enjoy the phenomenal hiking, camping, hunting etc. Either way welcome to the Land of Entrapment

What does this mean?

It's a play on words. NM is the "Land of Enchantment" .

You do know that big bumpy thing on the east side of Tramway is mountain don't you?

Of course not...how could anyone notice the Sandias? You also clearly don't have a relative grasp of how much easier it is to get to outdoor areas in SF vs. ABQ. Particularly depending on what part of ABQ you live in. But thanks for the superfluous reply.

Doh!

Is there some particular thing that about which a newbie should be concerned?  Something with some history behind it?

Come on vacation, leave on probation.

All those side of the road anal searches were courtesy of NM authorities.

hwy 14 sucks. there is no water. none and its not cheap... if you get into cerillios there is water but its a crazy weird co op thing, and its full of hippies, even worse in madrid. again, everything east of town its hit and miss for water. I have friends who truck in their water because the well they paid a arm and a leg to get to had uranium.

SF really isn't that bad, granted I could have about double the house for the same price and less taxes if I lived in Rio Rancho, but I live 5 minuets from work and thats hard to beat... I can tell you this, I've never worried about the contents of my car or my safety anywhere in santa fe... its top priority in all but a few places of ABQ.

if you stay out of a a few places downtown you can avoid 90% of the idiot hippie libtards.

Live in Tijeras.  Land of open access...SASS, Sandias, and open 4WD friendly trails.  It's all good.    If you want some sanity....head to the La Fiesta lounge for live country music and dancing, it's inside the LaFonda hotel.  A lot of regular folks (affluent ranchers), and not so many touristas.   Nice to have a beer, some decent food, and get away from the rest of the lib garbage that infests the town.

BTW, if you can possibly do it...drive right through Madrid....you'll understand what I mean after you spend an hour in that drug addicted tourist trap.