re: Does it piss you off when someone says Europe is too dangerous?

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The amount of armed military in the major European cities around the popular tourists places should make anyone feel safe there. Even without them, I’ve felt less safe walking around cities in the US than the cities I’ve been to in Europe.

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Got back from Italy last week and can attest to this. You knew when you were getting to the tourist areas because there was a hummer with 2 soldiers sitting out in front of every major attraction.

While terror from those seeking to,overthrow govt may not be as prevalent, in almost all other forms of violent crime, the US outpaces Western Europe. Mass shootings, murder, assault, etc etc. We live in a very violent country....

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most of the people that I hear say this believe it because of political rhetoric (mainly from the belief that Europe is riddled with roaming bands of violent muslims).

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They literally created a safe zone in Germany for NYE because hundreds of women were sexually harassed or assaulted last NYE by muslims and migrants.

LINK

Just because the whiter than white places we all travel too are safe from the riffraff doesn't mean it is that way for everyone else.

I worry about stumbling into one of those No Go Zones that Booby Jindal warned of.

You're about 3 times more likely to be murdered in the US than France.

Nearly 4 times more likely than in the UK.

Nearly 5 times more likely than in Italy.

Don't let facts get in the way of your travel though. Just stay in the US.

I understand that the statistics probably show not too great of an increase in risk, or possibly even less of a risk, in traveling in Europe vs. living everyday life in the US. But I absolutely understand the stigma.

I went to Europe for 2 months for the summer of 2016. We travelled through the Brussels station and I'd be lying if I said that the bombing wasn't on my mind. I was in Cannes with my girlfriend the night of the terrorist attack in Nice. People in my class were in Nice having dinner steps from the boardwalk. I have a friend that was in Barcelona at La Rambla at the moment of that attack. All of these incidences have impacted me more than someone being murdered in NOLA while I was in the FQ.

I think that generally, you're not going to be murdered in the US if you aren't doing something illegal or stupid. Obviously there are many exceptions, but that still is a reasonable perception. The terrorist attacks in 2015-16 were numerous and they were severe. Hundreds of people died in that time, and most of the attacks were in areas of high concentrations of people (ie tourist areas). If you travel to Europe to sightsee and experience the culture, there's really no way to avoid these areas.

I'll never forget that when we flew into France, there were armed military squads of 4, with full body armor and ARs walking through each terminal performing bomb checks, in both the airport and the train station. France was hosting the Euro Cup the summer I was living there. Each weekend when we travelled we saw more security than you could imagine. This partly made me feel safer. But it also made me realize that no matter how many guards there were, any one bag in a train station could kill hundreds of people, and there's no policing every single piece of baggage with the current system in place in European train travel. I seriously don't see how there aren't many more bombings at those train stations than there have been with how target rich they are.

Those are just my experiences and my perception. I'm not going to let some minuscule chance keep me from living my life, but when I travel through Brussels or attend some highly populated event, I'm going to still remember how close my friends and I have been to some pretty bad things. I'll still most likely be traveling to Europe this summer (and if I don't it won't be because of safety risks).

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Perception is not reality.

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So true. I was in England for the Manchester bombing, missed the Borough Market incident by mere days earlier this year; had near misses w German train station event as well. But I probably drove within blocks and minutes of dozens of shootings in Orleans Parish last year as well....we have learned to ignore the violet crime on our doorsteps yet we fear the rare terror incident.

As for the idea that we are “safe”here if we stay out of certain areas, the Lafayette movie theater shooting, Las Vegas massacre, Aurora, Dylan Roof in Charleston. and a long, long list of school shootings prove that no corner of the US is immune to violence.

It’s a function of consuming too much news 24/7 and hanging out at places like the TD poli board.