Sorry but I really had to resurrect this thread.
I too might have to move to Massachusetts at some point in the future. I grew up there, though, and now live in a free state down south. My parents still live there and my dad is a serious gun lover. He's a handgun guy though, and I'm the rebel of the family and love my AK-47's and other assault rifles.
I go up there every few months to visit and we always go shooting. There are some great gun clubs, the best one I know of and highly recommend is the Woburn Sportmen's club, I really recommend joining that one, here's the link:
Woburn Sportsmen's Association
I am currently trying to find out all I can about the assault rifle laws there and whether I can bring my AK's up there.
I know that even though they have a permanent assault weapons ban there are loopholes and grandfather clauses that allow people to have certain ones. I've been to gun stores there recently and the racks were lined with AR's, AK's, FAL's, etc.
Last time I was there was a couple months ago and at the range a guy was showing his super sweet DPMS AR setup and he had hi-cap mags and the whole nine yards for it, so I guess there's some way you can legally have the fun stuff there.
Honestly, Mass. isn't hell on earth for gun lovers. Everytime I go I go shooting and meet other people with cool guns. There's gun shows, cool gun stores, you can even get a concealed carry permit. The liberals and crooked democrats have taken over the mainstream there but there is a strong, strong community of smart gun owners, with plenty of money behind them too.
I feel like the tide has slowly been turning in our favor there. I grew up there, and when I was a kid (I left Mass. in the late 90s) there was no concealed carry allowed, the pistol permits were ridiculously expensive, and you weren't even allowed to use a gun in self defense in your own home! That has changed in the last decade though. Now you can get a CC permit (supposedly it's relatively easy), the possession permits don't have to be renewed as often, and many of the laws have been relaxed more. You can shoot in self defense.
As far as gun-friendly towns, Mass. has a long history of every town being different from the next in many ways, since it's so densely populated. Different towns are havens for different types of people. Brookline and Newton are the two most liberal fascist politically correct towns, don't even think about living there. I know that Belmont, where I grew up (it's only two towns away from Boston) has always issued handgun permits. There's that gun club in Woburn (that's a nice town too), and Reading (pronounced "Redding") has a big gun club too. A couple of the big universities have shooting clubs too.
Mass. just has a lot of people, every different type of person, and lots of them. You'll meet like minded individuals. It's an interesting place with a lot to offer. I just wish they would all wise up about guns!
New Hampshire and Maine have waaaaay better gun laws, and NH has lower taxes too. Living in Southern NH and commuting to the Boston area for work is totally doable, it's a 40 minute commute. NH and Maine are beautiful too. Rhode Island might have better gun laws than Mass., too, but I'm not sure of the details. That's another state that you could commute from (in fact most people living there do!).
Btw, not everyone there has the accent!