Uruguay and Venezuela have discouraged their citizens from traveling to the United States, citing this weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, as indicators of danger and a rise in hate crimes. The Japanese Consulate in Detroit, meanwhile, released a statement Sunday calling the United States a “gun society” and urging Japanese nationals to stay alert after the Dayton shooting.
These are just the latest countries to label gun violence in America a safety concern. In recent years, Germany, Ireland, Canada and New Zealand have issued similar warnings about travel to the United States. New Zealand’s government warns in an online travel advisory that “there is a higher incidence of violent crime and firearm possession than in New Zealand” and “active shooter incidents occur from time to time in the United States.”
Close to 40 million foreigners traveled to the United States in 2018. The U.S. State Department maintains a database of travel advisories for Americans planning trips abroad, rating destinations according to the government’s assessment of risk from “Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions” to “Level 4: Do Not Travel.”
