Comment by nkrisc
9 months ago
FWIW, I lived in Chicago (one of the favorite punching bags for gun violence) for over 30 years and heard gunshots twice.
While gun violence here is absolutely far more common compared to Europe, it is still very rare in absolute terms. The only guns I’ve even ever seen were in a police officer’s holster or in the possession of military personnel. Most gun violence is related to domestic disputes or among criminals. If you’re not selling drugs or don’t have an ex-husband with an anger problem and access to a gun, you’re probably going to be fine.
It’s not the guns you should worry about, but the border and entry process.
I lived in Chicago for 3 months and heard them twice a week (minimum), but I lived in the South Side, South of U Chicago.
Gun violence is largely local and contained between people who know each other in the US. City-wide stats obscure the concentration of crime in specific neighborhoods in most American cities
Yup, it will very much depend on where you live or travel. I lived on the Northside. If you avoid localized areas with high gun violence, you will very rarely ever encounter it.
The areas surrounding University of Chicago were historically some of the worst areas in the entire city for gun violence.
Many cities actually have crime heat maps that can show you the most dangerous areas and can be filtered by crime type (murder, assault, property crime, etc).