I know that US is vast, and there are millions of good places where one could feel safe, but I assure you, from the outside sometimes is seems you live in a mad max alternate universe

I’m from Europe, but I would have no problem going to a tech meeting with some google engineers in Silicon Valley.

Homicide rate is 10x the rate of EU and over 30x the rate of Japan: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/a...

Rape rate is about 3x the rate of EU: https://www.civitas.org.uk/content/files/crime_stats_oecdjan...

People killed by police (population adjusted) is about 30x the rate of Germany: https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-de... https://polizeischuesse.cilip.de/?p=1&year=2023

Sure, but those rates are also really low. That’s a bit like saying you’re scared of using your car because a plane is much safer. The chance of getting hurt while visiting a meeting in Silicon Valley is still one in a million.

It's the guns and the police.

People get angry or frightened. It's better for everyone else if they're not carrying a firearms at that point.

Policing a nation where everyone is armed means the police are heavily armed and the non-insane ones very frightened all the time. See above.

Worse than that, having a gun doesn't make you safer; it increases the risk to everyone in your household. But I can absolutely understand why fear drives people to own guns -- it's a vicious circle as increased gun ownership drives fear, which in turn drives even more gun purchases...