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throwaway98342 commented on Ask HN: Are you afraid to travel to US to tech conferences?    · Posted by u/throwaway98342
gruez · 5 months ago
>it seems to me that there has been a huge increase in violence

So you think that there's more violence because you hear about it on the news/social media, or is it informed by actual statistics? The latter shows a slight bump during the pandemic, but is back to pre-pandemic levels.

>Now I also read about non-US citizens being detained on the border.

The two cases I've heard about both involve people with visa issues trying to cross a land border, with neither side wanting to accept. If you're traveling for a conference and don't have obvious work intentions (eg. interviews lined up) you should be fine.

throwaway98342 · 5 months ago
I was comparing it with late 2000-2014 when I visited US a couple of times.

I agree it is an emotional comparison and probably driven by media.

Still I have replied in some other comment the idea that there are 500 shootings in 2024 in US seems to crazy to me. I know US is huge and this does not tell anything if I visit a specific place. Thus my emotional fear

throwaway98342 commented on Ask HN: Are you afraid to travel to US to tech conferences?    · Posted by u/throwaway98342
duxup · 5 months ago
>it seems to me that there has been a huge increase in violence, and I have huge fears about guns. I live in Europe and the thought that there are mass shooting is for me too high risk specifically considering traveling with my family. I understand probabilities but still more than 0% is a huge risk just for visiting a country.

I don't think there's evidence to support this and holding the line at 0 risk seems impossible / a real risk of a lot of stress for 0 gain in actual safety, or worse.

Example of the "worse", someone might see reports of a plane crash(s) and chaos at the TSA and choose to drive rather than fly. The result is they've increased their risk or injury or death (even if still very low).

Let alone the endless amount of worry reaching 0 risk would involve, sounds like a mental heath nightmare honestly.

I think people who hear "oh that strange place has this problem we don't have as much" they naturally view it as a far greater risk than it really is.

Humans are not good at measuring risk.

It's your call on travel, but that aspect of your concern seems unfounded and honestly potentially unhealthy.

throwaway98342 · 5 months ago
This page seems to me to have more than 0 deaths from guns: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_...

> A total of 711 people have been killed and 2,375 people have been wounded in 586 shootings

Not sure how to explain this and I don't want to imply anything about US culture cause I don't know it but it is so unimaginable to me that there were 500 shootings in one year.

Were I live we had none (zero) in the last 10 years or even more. Of course a smaller country so probably not comparable.

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u/throwaway98342

KarmaCake day33March 20, 2025View Original