TexasCHLforum.com

Greetings Everyone,

If this is in the wrong place, please feel free to relocate.

My wife and I are in the process of attempting to find a retirement home, and we seemed to have narrowed it down to TX. (We were also considering PA, but thought we may have had our fill of snow here in IL). We would like to find a place where we can protect ourselves without fear of reprisal, (Good to know you have a, "Castle Doctrine Law"). We already know that some local municipalities choose to regulate the carry of weapons in parks and such, and would like to know if there are any places considered, "safe", from such regulations. (It's also good to hear of the recent passage of Campus Right To Carry).

We really don't think large city life is for us, but still would need access to health care facilities and perhaps some, "Senior Services". I guess this means, "Suburban" rather than, "Rural", though Rural sounds so nice.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. A, "Plus", would be few tornadoes, but there are always shelters for sale.

Welcome Talonap.

IMHO the entire state of Texas is gun-friendly.

Since you may want to live in a rural area, and if you want to shoot on your
own property, Texas law requires you to have a minimum of 10 acres and none
of your lead may cross a boundary line.

There is a thread elsewhere here which discusses this in detail.

However, some rural counties don't really seem to care about the 10 acre rule
if there's no problem with the neighbors. So there's the letter of the law, then
there is the reality on the ground. 2 different views.

Texas is gun-friendly pretty much everywhere. Travis County used to be questionable, but the former DA is now gone and I don't know how it is with the current DA.

BTW, cities cannot regulate carrying of firearms in parks, if you have a Texas Concealed Handgun License. If you have a preference for any particular part of the State, let us know and someone will be able to give you more specific information.

Welcome to TexasCHLforum and I hope to welcome you to Texas very soon!

Chas.

Welcome to the forum.

Only a few cities, DFW area, Houston, and Austin, seem to have government officials who are opposed to CHL. Those are where the few prosecutions of people who defend themselves have occurred. There are plenty of reasons not to live in those cities if you don't work there.

DFW and Houston seem to have the most ranges and shooting sports activity.

I recommend looking at the area of East Texas between DFW and Longview. The climate there is decent (though all of Texas is hot in summer). The cost of living is low. I don't know of anything to dislike about it.

I have to say in fairness that Louisiana and Arkansas are probably equally good places to retire, if you are not looking for big-city attractions.

- Jim

Charles L. Cotton wrote:Texas is gun-friendly pretty much everywhere. Travis County used to be questionable, but the former DA is now gone and I don't know how it is with the current DA.

BTW, cities cannot regulate carrying of firearms in parks, if you have a Texas Concealed Handgun License. If you have a preference for any particular part of the State, let us know and someone will be able to give you more specific information.

Welcome to TexasCHLforum and I hope to welcome you to Texas very soon!

Chas.

Thank you for clearing up the part about local regulation - must have been reading about some other state. Things seem to all run together sometimes!

I would suggest that you pick your region of Texas based on climate and activities...pretty much anywhere is reasonably gun friendly. You can get an hour outside most any of our metro areas, be near enough to medical facilities and such, but plenty rural.

If you want to narrow it down, may I suggest the Temple area and the Texas Hill Country? Both have excellent medical facilities in the area, have great landscape, and little to find wrong...if you can take the summer heat. I like Corpus Christi as well, and there are several nice 'retirement subdivision type' areas just east and North of town as well...Rockport comes to mind as well as Padre Island (where I live), but if you don't like tornadoes then you might have trouble with hurricanes!

I consider the Hill Country the most beautiful part of Texas that I have seen. It used to be prohibitively expensive unless you were a retiring oil company or software executive. I did some poking around just now, and it is much more reasonable.

That area is dry. It has been in a drought for a decade. They are going to have real problems when the Edwards Aquifer is finally sucked dry. http://www.aquiferalliance.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

CDH wrote:I would suggest that you pick your region of Texas based on climate and activities...pretty much anywhere is reasonably gun friendly. You can get an hour outside most any of our metro areas, be near enough to medical facilities and such, but plenty rural.

If you want to narrow it down, may I suggest the Temple area and the Texas Hill Country? Both have excellent medical facilities in the area, have great landscape, and little to find wrong...if you can take the summer heat. I like Corpus Christi as well, and there are several nice 'retirement subdivision type' areas just east and North of town as well...Rockport comes to mind as well as Padre Island (where I live), but if you don't like tornadoes then you might have trouble with hurricanes!

I second this. My wife and I just built a house about an hour outside of Houston near Brenham. Close enough to medical and other Houston amenities but a rural lifestyle. Wonderful wildflowers in the Spring. Also Brenham has a number of conveniences.

You might also list things you want to avoid This was my list of things to avoid):

Snow? Then stay away from parts of North Texas

Large amounts of traffic? Then avoid the big cities like Houston.

Flooding during heavy rainstorms or possible hurricanes? Then avoid Houston.

Amazing humidity? Then avoid Houston. The further away from the coast you go the drier it gets.

The hill country is scenic and relatively dry but I did not want to move that far from Houston. Brenham is on the very edge of the Hill Country..

Come down and visit!

I'll agree that all of Texas very gun friendly, Temple area and Texas Hill Country are great spots for retirees (though Temple can be prone to tornadoes).

I am a Realtor in the Williamson County area just north of Austin (towns of Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander, Georgetown, Liberty HIll). There's a Sun City retirement community outside of Georgetown - and southern Williamson County is booming with new hospitals. Cedar Park & Round Rock are huge suburbs now, but plenty of rural area between Georgetown & Liberty Hill. And if you're into boating/fishing - the entire Highland Lakes system (Austin, Travis, Marble Falls, Inks, LBJ, and Buchanon lakes) is nearby and, in my honest yet biased opinion, some of the best recreation lakes you'll find anywhere.

My grandparents lived the last 30 years of his life in this area (grandma is still with us) and loved every minute of it.

Only thing this area is really lacking, gun-wise, is a good large-scale gun store. Some good smaller shops, but for great selection you have to go into the heart of Austin to McBride's (a great shop that's been around for decades). There are good outdoor and indoor ranges available.

If you're intersted in this area, PM or email me and I'd be happy to send you some more information (no pushy sales pitches, I promise - not my business model to be pushy). I also know some Realtors who work for same company as me who do work in the Hill Country areas of Johnson City, Dripping Springs etc. Beautiful country.

I'm biased, having lived in the Temple area all my life, but my honest oppinion is that Temple is the best area. That said, I would NOT move into Temple proper, if given the choice. I do currently live in the city of Temple, but will be moving back to the country where I grew up as soon as finances allow. Bell County is very gun friendly, except inside the city limits of Temple, and Killeen, and even those cities are relatively friendly to firearms owners. Been here all my life (admittedly short at only 26 years) and never seen a tornado, and I CHASE thunderstorms for fun. We've had a few come nearby, but no more than any other part of Texas. I would suggest some land in east Bell County, or possibly Milam County, where you are pretty close to Scott and White Hospital, yet out of town far enough not to have to worry about being annexed anytime soon. BTW, S&W is a Level 1 trauma center, one of only a select few in the state, and was President Bush's hospital if anything were to happen to him while he was in Crawford. Interesting bit of presidential trivia: Marine 1 did infact bring one patient to S&W ER during Bush's tenure in the White House, they were at the ranch when a call came into 911 about a young boy who had drowned in a stock pond very close by. The chopper crew heard the radio traffic, gained permission from (I assume) the secret service, and flew to the scene. As I understand it, they got to the scene roughly the same time as the ambulance crew, and flew the boy to S&W. I am, however, not sure of the outcome for the child.

surprise_i'm_armed wrote: Since you may want to live in a rural area, and if you want to shoot on your
own property, Texas law requires you to have a minimum of 10 acres and none
of your lead may cross a boundary line.

This is true if you live in an incorporated area - a town.
If you life outside of town in a rural area, or any UNincorporated area, you can shoot on your property.
I am on 1 acre in the DFW area, but i can shoot here because it's not yet incorporated.

I am going to throw New Braunfels out there, it's large enough to find most of what you want / need and if you can't Austin and San Antonio are only about half an hour away. The Hill Country is also close for those Sunday afternoon drives. Home prices are reasonable and the selection of neighborhoods is diverse. In town most folks are gun friendly but out in the outlying areas nearly everyone is and the law enforcement is generally of the same opinion.

It is not far enough North to get out of the humidity but is no where near the levels of Houston and the traffic during the Summer can get a little thick with all the tourists. But again, no where near the big city traffic (sometimes I have to go through an extra traffic light cycle ).

Doh!!!! I was going to suggest my hometown, but you beat me to it.

Might also consider the "north Texas hill country". . . west of Fort Worth. Brownwood, Stephenville, Albany, Breckenridge, Jacksboro, Throckmorton, Graham. . . get as close to FW as you think is necessary for airports, hospitals, etc. Probably a lot more affordable than the Georgetown / Austin / Marble Falls areas down south.

fickman wrote:Might also consider the "north Texas hill country". . .

Absolutely. Nice country, nice people, reasonable real estate.
Graham is big enough you won't miss much but airport proximity.
Same with Eastland & Mineral Wells