I'm still thinking about doing the same thing, just not sure which part of the country would be best.
Good for you... keep thinking. You'll make the right choice.
Whew, was relieved to read your post again in context and discover you weren't planning to find a place to shoot at people from your car.
As for leaving, I worked gangs for years, and spent much of my time on the phone with law enforcement from other states who called to ask questions about the gangs they were inheriting from L.A. (or at least their gangs pretended to be related to the ones in L.A.).