Here are a few personal observations about the state of Maryland and
Montgomery County in particular, where I live. Since I didn’t
know where the statistics used for the other states analyzed on SurvivalBlog
came from, for the cost of housing, car insurance, etc; I didn’t
want to dig up any off the wall numbers, so none are listed. The only
exception is for firearms ranking by “Boston’s Gun Bible
2005 ed.”, which I have. I only discuss the main part of the
state of Maryland and not the western part which is not as developed.
The western part of Maryland is mountainous, very hilly and fairly
remote from the rest of the state. Throughout this article I have underlined
what I feel are important points.
First are Montgomery County’s official statistics from their
web site. “Montgomery County is Maryland's most populous jurisdiction
and it’s most affluent. The County is located to the north and
adjacent to the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., and includes 497
square miles of land area. The topography is rolling with small hills.” Population
of the county in the 2000 census was 873,341. Population as of January
2005 was 942,000. [JWR Adds: Gee, just your county has
almost half population of my entire state, which, BTW has more than
four times the land area
of Maryland!]
State Sales Tax is 5%. However Maryland ranks number 17 with the
highest personal tax rate in the country.
Also in Montgomery County’s case, affluent means very high property
taxes. The state is now (2007) considering a proposal to raise the
sales tax to 5-1/2 or 6% to increase revenue.
Agriculture- Maryland’s crops are mainly corn, wheat and soybeans.
However its big cash crop is the Chesapeake Bay crab, which has been
caught
in lower than normal quantities in the last few years due to
pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. In the last ten years there has been
an increase in horse farms in Montgomery County (783 farms housing
12,000 horses in 2002). Farmers take their regular farms and board
the horses of the more affluent that live in condominiums and expensive
houses. Maryland used to be a tobacco producer but with everybody turning
against anything tobacco related, a lot of farmers are selling their
multi-hundred acre farms to development companies. These development
companies are building townhouses as fast as they can bulldoze the
land. These townhouses are sold starting at about $200,000 and up,
depending on the closeness to Washington, D.C. Choice locations are
also developed into neighborhoods of large houses starting at around
$500,000, again depending on location and closeness to Washington.
It is almost impossible and very rare to find a house for under $250,000
in Montgomery County.
Weather- In the summer, the east coast and the “Washington area” in
particular is very hot, 90-100 degrees, and very humid, 70-90%. The
official Heat Index in August on some days goes over 100 degrees, usually
resulting in a half a dozen deaths of the elderly and sick due to the
heat and high humidity and no air conditioning. At night this drops
to an average of 75-80 degrees and 70% humidity. Winter in the “Washington
area” varies from year to year, but usually drops to approximately
10-20 degrees. Some winters may get colder. Snow may consist of two
or three storms of 3-6 inches each, or like in 2004 one massive dump
of 24-26 inches in Washington, and up to 36 inches in Maryland. These
massive storms result in widespread loss of power, stores being closed
and everything coming to a dead halt for a couple of days.
Illegal Aliens (Spanish speaking) are everywhere. Cities and towns
in Maryland and Virginia are even building job centers for them, so
they
can “wait
out of the elements” and off the street locations where they
congregate (it looks bad). The daily routine is that large and small
contractors, yard service companies, and people in general looking
for day laborers (Joe home owner digging a drainage ditch, building
an
addition to his house, etc.) drive up, tell what they want and what
they are paying, pick out how many they want, load them up and drive
off. Once you find someone you like working with, just have him report
to your business. The women clean the homes, watch the children, and
buy the groceries for the Yuppie (Young Urban Professional) families
with both parents working. This happens because the under thirty crowd
(Caucasian and black) for the most part, won’t do hard physical
labor, so everybody wants the Spanish because they will work and need
the money. A personal observation is that all the fast food places
I frequent are 90% staffed by Spanish speakers. I took my brother to
the hospital last year for outpatient surgery, and while I was waiting
outside the
hospital at 3:00 PM, they released nine new mothers with their babies.
All were young and Spanish speaking. When I told friends of this later,
they called them “Anchor Babies”, automatic American citizens,
allowing the mothers to stay in America and access benefits. I saw
a newspaper article on a congressman who tried to bring up a bill canceling
the law about granting automatic citizenship to babies born to non
U.S. citizens. No one in congress would support it and it never came
up [for a vote].
In the past few years the larger bank chains, starting with Bank of
America, are allowing illegal immigrants to open bank accounts using
those Mexican Consulate ID cards as “Legal ID” to deposit
payroll checks from companies and contractors. In case no one is aware,
this is now normal business practice across America. The Internal Revenue
Service then assigns them a “Taxpayer Identification Number” to
process their taxes on income earned in America, even though they are
not legal residents and do not have a social security number. I guess
that’s why there haven’t been any arrests for nonpayment
of taxes on income earned. The IRS’s position is that it is a
revenue collecting agency, not a citizenship enforcement agency. The
U.S. government just wants the money. Maryland is also one
of a handful of states that will issue a driver’s license to an illegal immigrant (does
not require proof of citizenship).
Politically, Maryland is predominately a Democrat state. The governor
elected in 2002-2006, was a Republican (the first Republican in almost
40 years), but it was a very close race. One of the points he ran on
was gun owner rights. He was elected and then didn’t say another
word about guns for his four years, not that it would have mattered
with the liberal Democratic state government. The new governor elected
in 2006 is a Democrat who was the mayor of the city of Baltimore (very
liberal, anti-gun).
This brings us to the subject of Maryland and guns. Maryland is anti-gun,
period. In Boston T. Party’s book, “Boston’s Gun
Bible”, 2002 edition, Maryland ranks 43rd out of 51 (50 states
plus D.C.). In other words, it ranks as one of the 10 worst states
for firearms ownership in America. Maryland’s
stance on guns is
basically that there are too many deaths by guns (high crime and needless
accidents [children]) therefore get rid of the guns and violent
crime will go down, regardless
of the fact that this has been proven false over and over again. Also,
law abiding citizens shouldn’t have a need for a gun. The state
of Maryland has a
very, very restrictive “Concealed Carry Weapon” law administered
by the state police (in other words, No Way). Under the Concealed Carry
Weapon Law, the state police use the requirement of having a "good
and substantial reason" as a justification to deny issue of a
permit. Maryland law states that all private firearms sales (resident
to resident) of “regulated firearms” (pistols and assault
rifles), must be processed through either an FFL dealer
or the Maryland State Police in person. As the buyer, you have to fill
out the same
paperwork as when buying a new firearm and wait 7 days for approval
or disapproval by the state police before you can take possession.
And before I forget, “A person may not manufacture, sell, offer
for sale, purchase, receive, or transfer a detachable magazine that
has a capacity of more than 20 rounds of ammunition for a firearm.” Maryland
Criminal Law Code § 4-305(b)
Montgomery County, Maryland tried to pass a law in 2001 banning “Public
money” to "any organization that allows the display and
sale of guns" on its property, in this case to
prevent the “Montgomery
County Fairgrounds” from hosting a Gun Show.
It went to court and was later overturned but the county promised to
rewrite it and try again later. Maryland
was watching and supporting the effort from the sidelines. As a result, gun shows no longer come
to Montgomery County.
Yes, there are pro-gun and hunting organizations in the state and they
are fighting for the cause. But from what I see, the pro-gun groups
struggle to muster enough support to fight each battle when the state
quietly slips a legislation “clarification” into the legislative
process. They are slowly losing the war due to being outnumbered. Most
of Maryland has grown into a bunch of young professional office workers
and non-hunting people, who are only interested in buying an expensive
house and living the good life while they can. These vastly out number
the blue collar workers that are still left and are being pushed further
outward from the nation’s capital because they can no longer
afford to live in the “affluent” counties anymore.
Where to live in Maryland if you didn’t have to work in the District
of Columbia (D.C.)? I see only two areas. 1) The north-central part
of the state, around the towns of Fredrick (close to a possible nuclear
target),
Hagerstown
(hilly) and Westminster, all of which are growing fast population wise.
2) Western Maryland around Cumberland, which like I said in the beginning
is mountainous, very hilly and fairly remote from the rest of the state.
You are however close to parts of Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
The eastern shore (east side of the Chesapeake Bay) would be good however
the ability to get in and out is severely restricted as there is only
one land route and two bridges to get to that side of the state. The
land route is in the far north by Delaware and the two bridges are
at Annapolis in the middle and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in the far
south into Virginia. The bridges become jammed with bumper to bumper
traffic every summer as everyone travels to and from the seashore.
In a crisis situation such as the very rare occasion when a hurricane
makes it this far north, the two bridges come to complete stand still
as everyone tries to leave and accidents occur by panicky drivers.
My call for nuclear targets: 1) Washington, D.C. area (several bombs,
over lapping the surrounding counties including Montgomery County),
2) Camp David, Maryland, presidential retreat (north of Fredrick, outside
Thurmont, Maryland, near the Pennsylvania line) and 3) Baltimore (major
U.S. seaport). There are also a couple of minor military bases in the
state,
Andrews Air Force Base (Air Force One and some cargo planes), Aberdeen
Proving Grounds (large test facility), and the United States Naval
Academy in Annapolis. Of course on any fallout pattern map I’ve
seen, Maryland is downwind of everything else in the United States,
so being a target is not really the problem here.
These are only my personal observations of the state I grew up in,
left to serve in the Army for twenty four years and came back to. The
state is very crowded, very expensive, and most people are of the mind
set to just give the government any power it asks for and it will take
care of everything. For the most part they don’t understand or
even care one bit about the increasing loss of their freedoms or the
Second Amendment. And yes, I am looking into moving. - Al
in Maryland
JWR Adds: If I was forced by work or family circumstances to live near Washington, D.C., then I would be more inclined to live in rural Virginia than I would anywhere in Maryland. (Mainly because of Virginia's more favorable tax and gun laws.) Although it is a long commute to the DC Beltway, the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia may be worth considering.
