Hey all, I may have a "too good to pass up" job opportunity in the quad cities area and would like to hear all about living in that area. I want the good and the bad...cost of living, quality of life and basically, do you like living there or are you just there for the job you have ?
We have family there, so we wouldn't be like fish out of water.
Obviously, one of my main concerns is RKBA issues, so input on that would be a great help.
I would also have the option of living across the river in Illinois, would that be a better choice ??
I have been a desert rat all my life but we have family in Moline and go back often to see them. We do like the area (it's so green) and we know there's this stuff called snow there.
Sooooo, sell me on your state or tell me why I should stay away !! Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks !!

(I also posted this in the Illinois forum)

iowa aint so grand in some ways, RKBA specificlly. i guess cost/quality of living is pretty good. crime isnt too bad for the most part. the rural areas are hell, the farmers keep liberals in office so they can keep receiving their handouts. Quad cities is about the only part of iowa i havnt been, but i hear its pretty nice as far s iowa goes.

on the RKBA issue:

overall it could be alot worse. thier arnt any stupid state level AW bans or anything like that (i think "dragons breath" and birdbomb type shotshells are banned, but thats hardly an issue. the big gripe around here is CCW is issed to "deserving parties" at teh sheriffs disgression. in the county i used to live in, if you were clean, you could pack heat. here in des moines it is my understanding you need some serious pull to get a permit. you would have to check with someone in te quad cities to get the scoop there. oh yah, one other thing....
NO CLASS 3!!!!!!!!!

Actually the new sheriff of Polk County (Des Moines) will sign for CCW after you take the course, I live one county to the east and he won't sign unless you're one of his good old boys.  In addition to no C3 firearms you can't cheat and legally own/use any of the Hell-Triggers or any other crank-fire adapters on your semi-autos.  But if you think you'll be in this state for a while then definitely check out the corporate route for owning C3 as that's legal and is starting to get more popular now that others are learning about it.  If you have C3 now then I'd check into keeping your weapons in AZ stored as a dual-state resident, you'll have to keep them there but at least you won't have to sell them and try to buy again at a later date for a much higher price (I resemble that remark and kick myself for not learning of the dual-state residency option).  

I live in Polk county, which, as mentioned, has a pretty good Sherrif (though he is a Democrat, he is for CCW).

I took my class and got my CCW, easy as pie.

Over the river in IL, the gun laws are getting more restrictive by the day.  No CCW, and they were talking about banning assault weapons, from what I hear...

Tell me more about the Corporate route to C3!

As far as a corporation goes do a search in the M-16 Full Auto forum here and there will be all kinds of stuff on it.  For me to explain it's complicated and there's still some things I don't understand.  I work with a guy who has a "closed" corporation and they can't take on any new members but he does have possession of one C3 I bought and I'll be buying one of his weapons from their corp. and he'll just keep it under his corp. until everything gets worked out for me to take possession.  Next on the agenda is a suppressed Walther P22 & a SWD Mac-11A1 as I've always had a soft spot for that .380 bullet hose. I'm going to be selling off a lot of stuff in the near future (firearms and Arizona acreages) to afford my dream C3 weapons: transferrable M-16 and a Thompson...oh yeah to also pay off the credit card.  Once I come up with my list of weapons to sell (20-25 I think) I'll post it here first so that you guys can have a chance to buy it personally without that little yellow piece of paper.  I have another weapon at a friends house that I traded him for, he'll just keep it at his house in that state until the time comes it can be transferred up here.

Was born and raised in the QC.  Mom still lives there.  Basic river town, mostly blue collar in character.  Good schools.  Cost of living is not bad  (depending on what you're used to).  Couple of good gun clubs in the area.  Milan, Illinois has a gorgeous facility, Oak Hills outside of Davenport is also pretty decent.  Some decent gun shops.  Rock Island Arsenal has a neat museum.  State is overrun with deer.  The Hawkeyes play just down the road in Iowa City.

Downside.  Last I knew the Scott County sheriff was very tough on permits.  Don't know what Illinois is like, but I doubt its any better. No class III unless you are a class III dealer.  And even if you are you probably won't find a range that will let you play. I don't know what booger hooker's plan on acquiring the fun stuff is but it sounds a bit iffy to me.  Local economy tends to flucuate quite a bit.  Deer hunting is shotgun, muzzleloader, bow, or handgun; leave the Remington 700 at home. As a rule I avoid the Illinois side of the QC.  Tends to get a bit rough across the river.

If you have a boat the river can be a hoot.  Spent many a weekend swilling beer on friend's boats.  

Political climate in the QC can get rough.  Davenport is the only city in the state that runs partisan city elections.  The rest of the state is strictly non-partisan.  Tends to put an edge on local politics, if you're in to that sort of thing.  

Eastern Iowa in general tends to look upon themselves as a semi-indpendent entity.  They don't like Des Moines and Des Moines  doesn't  like them.  

All in all its not a bad place to live and raise a family.  

Its really cold in the winter and really hot in the summer

There are about 100,000,000,000,000,000 deer

Endless corn fields

But if you think you'll be in this state for a while then definitely check out the corporate route for owning C3 as that's legal and is starting to get more popular now that others are learning about it.

BH: What's up with this? I keep an old IA buddy's museum-grade BAR here for him in the free state of AZ (under a corpoaret umbrella, just because it's easier). Is there a way for him to have direct access to his pride and joy in IA?

Just point me in the right direction.

Thanks.

SD (Formerly from IA, now in America)

SPECTRE:

Don't even think about it.

I spent 35 years in Iowa. I finally escaped to America (free state of Arizona) because I could no longer stand the sheer geekiness of Iowa. A few trips to Gunsite had a lot to do with my attitude recalibration.

In Iowa, your CCW is wholly a function of whether or not you're buddies with the county sherrif; and there ain't no Class III (althouh there may be a way around that according to BH).

Iowa also has a "retreat" law. That is to say; if some punk threatens you, you are required to run away if you can. Not at all like what we do down on Van Buren. If you move to Iowa, you're going to think you've died and gone to Hell.

Illinois makes Iowa look like paradise. Those poor folks suffer from the same problem as New Yorkers: basically a good bunch of small town folks who are legislatively dominated by a bunch of big-city morons.

Think it over before you give up your US citizenship for a few $.

Luck.

SD

What booger-hooker is referring to is a corporation based FFL with SOT. By doing it as a corporation based FFL with SOT the corporation could add and remove corporation members as they see fit, kind of a timed share on the business inventory.

So unless the NFA weapon you are holding goes to an SOT dealer he is not going to be able to take it into Iowa.

The exception would be silencers with a special exemption from the state as a state contracted hunter permitted to thin the state's deer overpopulation.

David, thanks for explaining things better than I did about the C3 stuff.  One of the guys that I work with is a retired LEO and has been in their corporation since the '70's, there's nothing "iffy" about it.  I know there are other C3 dealers that are in Iowa and will be talking to two of them at the Des Moines gun show, one of them is even listed in the most recent issue of SAR as a dealer/manufacturer in Iowa.  Believe me I didn't know about this option in Iowa until two years ago but it has been around for a LONG time, the internet is opening doors and eyes of people to see what all options are out there.  Sorry for the rant and thanks again to David for explaining this subject much better than I initially did.  Edited to add that to learn more about corporations do a search in the M-16 Full Auto forum on ARFcom.