Actually, it took me ten minutes to get my driver's license.
I'm in Colorado south of Denver. The sun has been out all day. There's no snow in my yard. The temperature is about 50° right now. I haven't heard a siren in weeks, perhaps months. My gunsmith is due to deliver a couple pistols within the hour. Yes, he picks up and delivers. I have pretty good neighbors. The worst thing about my neighbors is that the folks behind me shoot off lots of firecrackers every year on Independence Day. I drink the water out of the tap instead of buying bottled. I can almost always find everything I want at a single grocery instead of having to go to two or three. My property taxes for the yearsmall two-bed-room house on a modest lot with two-car garagewill be under $700. I paid under $130,000 for the house, by the way, and it's in a quiet, safe neighborhood, although there are some people down the street with a loud car stereo. All the yards are fenced. My neighbors and I collect one another's mail and newspapers when people are out of town, and invite one another to holiday dinners. We swap tools and yard gadgetry and expertise. I hardly ever see a dog running loose. It's a racially integrated neighborhood, but there are no obvious illegal aliens. There hasn't been a burglary in the neighborhood in at least five years, and that was the theft of a radio from an unlocked truck. I've never seen smog. I'm within easy driving distance of the Rocky Mountains. Lots of shop keepers count back my change. I carry a gun openly about a third of the time, indifferently concealed about a third, concealed the restand the permit I was initially told would be good for a year turns out to be good for four. Both the town I live in and the county are free of political corruption, and although that can't be said for Denver, it's true for the rest of Colorado, as well. You don't need a permit to keep and bear arms at home, in your business, in your car, in your boat, in your airplane, et cetera. I could own machine guns if I were so inclined. There's no fee for the background check when buying guns, and the check usually takes less than ten minutes. Firearms registration is illegal here.
My only regret about leaving the People's Republic of California to return to the United States in 2002 is that I didn't do it years sooner. I still miss the mild weather now and then, and will probably always miss the wonderful beaches, but in all other respects, life is much better in the United States.
