Via Travel Off Path:
The United States of America is not the first destination that comes to mind when you think of safety issues affecting tourists.
Like much of the Western World, it has been historically considered a safe destination, while countries like Mexico and their Latin American partners have been under scrutiny for years over isolated incidents that rarely ever involve visitors.
Interestingly, a new travel advisory update issued by Canada, America’s closest neighbor and its sister nation, seems to be bringing that unchallenged status into question, as urban safety across the States becomes more compromised.
The text of the advisory, available via an official website operated by the government of Canada, warns of petty theft, violent crimes, and gun crimes, among other threats to personal safety:
Petty crime, such as pickpocketing and purse snatching, occurs, particularly in urban centres and tourist locations….
“Within large urban areas, violent crime more commonly occurs in poor neighbourhoods, particularly from dusk to dawn. It often involves intoxication. Incidents of violent crime are mainly carried out by gangs or members of organized crime groups but may also be perpetrated by lone individuals…
The rate of firearm possession in the US is high. It’s legal in many states for US citizens to openly carry firearms in public.
Incidences of mass shootings occur, resulting most often in casualties. Although tourists are rarely involved, there is a risk of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I am of two minds on this issue. On the one hand, as a general rule, travel advisories are overwrought and, frankly, stupid. I have been to many regions and states of the world where the U.S. State Department has issued histrionic travel advisories, and so far nothing catastrophic has happened.
Crime occurs everywhere. Due diligence and universal, basic prevention strategies go a long way to avoiding problems.
On the other hand, it is true that the places I have felt most unsafe, with the glaring exception of San Jose, the horrific capital city of Costa Rica, the residents of which all look like they just got released from prison yesterday, have all been large urban centers in the United States.
Related: New Georgia Law Targets Left-Wing Prosecutors
This is not a call for gun control, as I believe the 2nd Amendment is invaluable as a defense against government tyranny and that’s what its main utility is (not hunting or whatever the left claims), but what’s undeniably true is that the United States in its current form is a toxic cocktail of rampant gun possession, untreated mental illness, over-prescription of psychotropic drugs, economic decline, political instability, and widespread criminality facilitated by George Soros’ Open Society Foundation and other arms of the multinational technocratic state.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member