Ask HN: Are you afraid to travel to US to tech conferences?

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...

I would be considerably more worried about being incorrectly detained by ICE and getting caught up in that nonsense than gun violence.

Simultaneously, you're getting a lot of Americans in the comments talking about how the risk of gun-violence is near-zero and nothing to be worried about. There have been 58 mass shootings in the U.S. In Europe, there have been 2. Statistically, going from Europe to the U.S, your risk of being caught up in a shooting ARE significantly higher.

Is that still worth not travelling for? In reality, 58 mass shootings in 3.5 months across that number of population centres, the risk is incredibly, incredibly low.

But is it still significantly higher than Europe? Yes, absolutely.

Should you worry about the U.S violence getting "worse"? No. But it is more violent, statistically, than Europe.

As I said though, I'd be more worried about ICE nonsense.

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 unless you live in one of the violence prone neighborhoods.

>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).

Let alone the endless amount of worry reaching 0 risk would involve, sounds like a mental heath nightmare honestly.

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.

As a European with a lot of US connections, I've always felt a bit uneasy about going to the US, and it's probably the only liberal democracy where I felt this way. So maybe the rule can be a rule now, that I only feel unfairly treated in non liberal democracies.

With the US, you just get the feeling every time you are at security that they might mistreat you, for no reason. The way the agent looks at you, the way the questioning goes, it's like they suspect you of being a criminal. The only other country where the guy made that atmosphere for me was Cuba.

As for violence when you're in the country, my impression with those statistics is that it's highly localized, wherever you are in the world. There's some neighbourhood that you're not supposed to go to, and if you just stay out, your risk is very low.

Regarding the people you meet, the US is the only place where I get the Jekyll/Hyde vibe. Lots of super friendly people who will be happy to chat with you. But also the feeling that if you get on their wrong side, it will be unpleasant really fast.

> 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.

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 wouldn't say I'm afraid. Yes there's mass shootings nearly daily but statistically rare to impact a tech conference. My number one reason not to go is the USA threatening the sovereignty of my country (Canada) daily, as well as the risk of being detained and thrown in a pit for weeks. There's a recent story where that happened to a pretty white Canadian lady with good paperwork - that's usually an untouchable class of people. Many more stories for other countries like Germany too. I've also never seen so much Canadian nationalism and "buy Canadian" sentiment in my life because of this trade war and so I also won't spend my money there like for a conference or hotel. I've already canceled two trip plans and won't go for at least a few years unfortunately.

We basically stopped holding conferences in the US back in 2018/2019, because so many people at the company had had visas refused and ESTAs revoked (including me). US loss, Europe's gain. It wasn't because of a worry about shootings though, just a very practical problem that people were unable to get to conferences in the US.

The last time I visited the US was in 2017, and I vowed never to go again. All because of the treatment by immigration. Over a number of visits during the years, I have been shouted at multiple times, talked down to, and generally treated like crap. I am travelling on a South African passport (I am white, though, before anyone tries and blames it on racism).

This last incident in 2017, I was standing by the immigration officer, and while he was looking through my documents, I was looking around at the people waiting in the queue. He asked if I was travelling with someone. I said no. He asked why I was looking at the queue. I said I was just looking around. He told me to stop looking around and look in front of me. I said OK. Somewhere during this I put my hands in my pocket, so he told me to take my hands out of my pocket. I was a bit startled at this and trying to figure out what was going on with the guy. I was obviously too slow for him so he shouted loud "take your hands out of your damn pocket". I just zipped my mouth and wanted to get through it.

Once I got past him, I needed to get a connecting flight to Mexico. I walked down a passage following the directions and saw that I was going to end up in the main check-in area. Since I was just connecting, I was confused and I asked two immigration officers whether I am going in the right direction. The lady just told me "keep moving sir". I tried to explain that I was connecting and thought I was going in the wrong direction. She then shouted at me "keep moving!". I told her again "please, just listen to me", and she shouted at me again. Thankfully, the guy with her told her to calm down and took a minute to listen to me and explained that I was going the right way.

Honestly, this trip was the last straw for me and I vowed never to go back. The contrast between the immigration in the US and other countries - especially compared to Asia - was night and day. I decided I would visit countries that are happy to have me visit and treat me with dignity instead.

Another time in the US, I was walking past a construction site. I was walking outside the safety barriers, but on the same side of the street. I guy rushed out at me and started shouting at me to get on the opposite side of the road. Huge guy. Looked like he wanted to attack me and was red in the face of fury and spittle sprayed all over me while he was shouting at me.

Quite honestly, there are too many angry people over there. I have visited many countries and never experienced anything like the angry people in the US.

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 credibly claims he was tortured over a decade-old marijuana misdemeanor on his record.

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

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.