>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).

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.

For those wondering, several German nationals have been detained through a process irregular enough to garner comment from the German government.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/18/germany-inve...

American here, and I think your stance is reasonable. Authoritarian regimes are harmful, and a boycott is one approach. I'm skeptical that there's a significant increase in violence, though; maybe that's news amplification? Far too many Black, Indigenous, and other non-white people have been murdered here over the centuries (by the US Army, by cops, by posses, etc), and that continues apace.

> I understand probabilities but still more than 0% is a huge risk just for visiting a country.

This is a logic driven community, but this statement is 100% emotionally driven. (E.g. you understand it's extremely unlikely, but you don't feel comfortable still)

There's nothing wrong with making emotionally-driven decisions, but there's also very little anyone else can say (or at least no stats, no probabilities, no logic based reason) to make you feel differently about the chance of improbable events occurring.

I don't know about you, but most of us are human. Rational or not, we do not routinely do cost-benefit analysis for each of our actions and choices.

In fact, in human matters, relying purely on logic means ignoring the fuzzy, analog decision system called instinct and gut feeling, which has served us very well historically.

As a U.S. citizen my fear of being involved in gun violence on a day-to-day basis is zero.

Basically all gun violence in America is either confined to very specific economically depressed areas, that are well-known and easy to avoid, or is between two private parties.

Yes the big news headlines are scary, yes I wish the number was zero, but the reality is that the risk is still extremely, extremely, extremely low and is not something the average person needs to even think about.

Yes Americans are fairly unhinged and there are definitely lots of shootings but I’ve lived in this land my whole life and haven’t been shot at.

I think you’ll be fine. Shootings here get a lot of media coverage which makes it seem more common than it actually is.

>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.

I lived there for years as a legal resident. During Covid I got a national interest exception allowing me to return to USA from Europe while the border was closed to non-citizens. So I have reason to believe my immigration sheet is clean.

I’m still afraid to go back now. It seems like they’re simply making an example by throwing random people into weeks of detention at the border. A green card holder claims he was tortured over a decade-old marijuana misdemeanor on his record.

Needless to say this is pretty bad for American tourism, business travel, conferences, etc.

Not so much afraid, but not planning because they will probly not let me in anyways. There are better places to visit anyways

I’m very much reconsidering attending KubeCon in Atlanta later this year.

Hope you're saying this irrespective of politics. Be afraid of Atlanta for it's violent crime rate, not the extremely low chance of being an educated foreign tourist with a valid visa that gets arrested or something.

I would not travel to the US unless my life depends on it.

I had a long response typed up with more personal data but the short of it is that yes, I am more hesitant to visit the US than I was in the past. I was already quite hesitant due to my experiences over the years (I did my undergrad in the US) but now I feel like there is a risk of more than simply being denied entry and swiftly returned to my home country.

I will not visit the US, for any reason (work or pleasure) while Trump is president (or indeed any Republican is president).

Yep. I skipped a tech conference in Feb where we announced a major partnership with a Canadian company (I’m from South Africa). I do not want to travel to the US in the current climate.

please don’t come here

Same.

I think at this point you should be more worried about being thrown in a detention centre. But the likelihood of being affected gun violence in be US especially if you stick to the right parts is low as long as you're there for a short while.

I was not aware of an increase in gun violence since the trump adm. Any sources?

definitely more burning li-ion

>PS: Imagine why this is a throwaway account because I read they check the phone, laptops at the boarder. This is 100% more crazy that I am afraid to even speak on the internet about it.

I don't think this is very common but I understand it can happen. At any rate nothing you said would be cause for concern. Their main concerns at the border are:

-are you attempting to immigrate beyond your visa? Or work without permit?Have a job? Family ties -are you violent? - terrorist? -spy?

It's worth being cognizant on what their concerns are so you can be open instead of apprehensive over non issues.

> -are you attempting to immigrate beyond your visa? Or work without permit?Have a job? Family ties -are you violent? - terrorist? -spy?

"The French government said on Wednesday, March 19, that a French researcher had been denied entry to the United States and sent back to France because he had expressed a "personal opinion" on US research policy."

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/03/20/f...

That might not be the only reason: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-f...

> France’s research minister said a French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration.

Don’t go. Your anxiety will make the entire duration you are here very uncomfortable. Although the probabilities are very low like you said, you’d probably want to take baby steps, not jump straight into a conference with many people that can be an easy target for a mass shooting. You’re going from a country where a mass shooting is practically impossible to one where it’s a daily occurrence.