How Traveling Can Be a Safety Beacon

“Do you feel safe going back to America?” A security guard at the Passion Play Theatre in Oberammergau, Germany, asked my spouse and me in May 2022. Another mass shooting had just been broadcast. That time, in Syracuse, New York. “Unfortunately, gun violence is so common now it’s just something we have to live with,” we replied. The security guard grimaced, silently letting us know what we already knew — that is a horrific reality. He explained how strict German gun laws are and how uncommon shooting deaths are as a result. 

I think of that interaction often, especially when people ask if I feel safe traveling out of the country. The fact is, I’ve rarely felt unsafe when traveling abroad. My biggest concerns in a crowded metropolis are pickpockets, not knowing the closest exit, and wearing proper running shoes. If anything, traveling abroad unburdens the fear I carry with me every single time I go into a crowded place here in the States. 

Oberammergau, a town of 5,400 people in Bavaria, is one of the places I’ve felt safest. Even during their surge in tourists for the 2022 Passion Play (a tradition that occurs every 10 years), I was the calmest I’ve felt in years. Not once did I think, “What if someone opens fire in this crowd?” Not even an inkling. 

Every single time I have come back home, I mourn the reality that could have been. What we could have been. How we could feel attending a concert, meandering the streets of a big city, or just spending time quietly in a park without that lingering ache of “what if.” I live with that “what if” lurking in the back of my mind, and I didn’t grow up in a time when schools had shooter drills. I cannot imagine what that ache is like for the children who have to grow up with that as the norm. 

All I know are the looks. The piteous looks I receive when visiting other countries and making conversation with their residents. Being asked time and time again how we live with these daily atrocities. Being told how infrequent gun deaths and mass shootings are in these other countries. 

So far in 2025, there have been 392 mass shootings (deaths of four or more people) in the United States. A staggering 13,998 people have died from gun violence this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. There have been, statistically, fewer mass shootings this year than from 2020 to 2024, and these statistics are hard to shake. 

In the 24 hours between submitting this article and running through it for edits, the death total for the year went up by 41. This is not fucking normal. As of 2023, we have the sixth-highest gun-death rate in the world. Yet, our government continues to do nothing about sensible gun laws. They continue to pander to people crying “the 2nd Amendment” without recognizing that outlawing literal military grade weapons doesn’t negate someone’s ability to own a pistol or a rifle. 

This kind of regulation would not hinder the rights of citizens to hunt or target practice at a shooting range. It would justifiably mean you can’t own a gun that can decimate a crowd of people in three minutes. 

Even with declining numbers, America’s horrific, abusive relationship with guns continues to be a stain on this country’s reputation — especially when you see the other stats from around the globe. As of 2023 for instance, there had been six mass shootings in Germany since 2000. Six. Even with our reduced gun violence, I cannot even fathom that. 

The constant media overwhelm is even harder to shake — especially once you’ve been in places where this just doesn’t happen. In rare cases when it does happen, the headlines can say “first in xx years” rather than “xx this week” or “this month” or “this year.” Take Australia for example, which just suffered a tragic, anti-semitic mass shooting of a Hanukkah celebration. That was the first time more than ten people were massacred in a mass shooting in the country since my fourth birthday on April 28, 1996, when 35 people were killed.  

The last time the U.S. had a shooting that resulted in more than 10 deaths was on October 25, 2023. That time frame is, unfortunately, not an outlier. It also occurred in 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, 2017 … you get the point. 

You know what stymied gun violence in Australia after the Port Arthur Massacre in 1996? Stricter gun laws. No, they aren’t perfect. Yes, there will always be people who can skirt them to do despicable deeds. However, enacting them is doing something, unlike sitting on our hands behind  the thoughts and prayers that haven’t done anything but serve the gun-toting lobbyist overlords. 

Rising fascism aside, I’m unsurprised American tourism is down this year. My own travel has been radically stifled this year as well. I haven’t been writing as much about far-flung adventures. In part, it’s just self preservation, working to combat the ever-increasing costs of living. On the other hand; however, I just haven’t been able to bring myself to leave home as much. 

The sad fact is that I’m so used to the constant fear that something will go wrong in a public space that the questions from foreign friends still take me by surprise. There is always a brief moment when a trigger flips in my brain and I realize it isn’t normal to always be on alert. To always be worried in a crowded room. To memorize the emergency exits of every theater or concert hall I step foot in. 

I long for a time when new foreign friends can tell me, “I want to visit Chicago/New York/L.A.,” and not finish that thought with “but I won’t feel safe.” I also long for a time when I can visit another country and not breathe a sigh of relief for my safety in a public space. Traveling should be about learning, growing, and enjoying this wide world around us — not fearing for our own safety. 

Maybe one day. 

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