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TSA discovered over 6,600 weapons at airports final yr; most have been loaded
Most of the firearms have been discovered at checkpoints in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
Scripps News
- Some worldwide vacationers and former U.S. residents are avoiding or minimizing journey to the United States attributable to gun violence issues.
- Several international locations, together with Canada and Australia, have issued journey advisories for his or her residents relating to the danger of gun violence within the U.S.
Christina Kooi left America due to gun violence. The 38-year-old, who was born within the Netherlands and moved to the United States when she was 10, in the end left the nation in 2017 amid ongoing college shootings.
“I could not picture myself having kids and sending them to school in the U.S.,” she instructed USA TODAY. She traveled internationally earlier than relocating again to the Dutch nation. She makes yearly journeys to go to her mother and father in Ohio, however is cautious of spending an excessive amount of time stateside.
Now with two younger youngsters (2 and 4), the big variety of firearms is a priority. “For me to move back to the U.S., or to be there for an extended period of time, I would just be afraid to be at someone’s home and have my kid grab a handgun out of a well-meaning neighbor’s bedside table,” she stated.
Ohio’s gun legal guidelines – which permit permitless hid carry – additionally give her pause. “I don’t like knowing that somebody I entered the Target with or the Walmart with happens to have a gun in (their) pocket,” she stated. Her Romanian husband feels equally, she added.
Kooi is just not the one one. Some vacationers are minimizing time spent within the United States or avoiding it altogether attributable to gun violence and different security fears. Here’s why:
‘It’s scary for us’
Cheryl Jessamine and her accomplice deliberate to take an RV journey down the coast of Oregon in May, however after President Donald Trump gained the 2024 election, they canceled. The Alberta, Canada, pair was involved for his or her security as a same-sex couple with the federal authorities focusing on the LGBTQ+ group, and experiences of vacationers being detained by immigration officers.
Gun violence was one other issue. “It’s scary for us,” Jessamine, 58, stated. “I’m not saying it doesn’t happen here either, but it seems to be at least more (U.S. gun violence) discussed in the media.”
Data from the National Travel and Tourism Office exhibits a few 1.8 million drop in guests from Canada within the first half of the yr in comparison with 2024. The drop was fueled, partially, by escalating political tensions between the United States and Canada.
In September alone, the United States has seen a number of high-profile shootings, with the homicide of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah and a faculty capturing in Colorado going down on the identical day.
Those strengthened Jessamine’s emotions. “It didn’t help your cause, (I’ll) put it that way,” she stated. “It didn’t help us want to cross the border again.”
They took a September journey to Mexico for his or her daughter’s thirtieth birthday. “Originally she wanted to go to New York City, and we’re like, we just can’t,” she stated.
Are vacationers avoiding the U.S.?
Tourism Economics, which supplies trade analysis, initially anticipated 10% progress this yr. Their revised forecast now places that determine at an 8.2% fall. Their July report attributes the declining development to a mixture of insurance policies and rhetoric from the Trump administration that has altered how potential vacationers understand coming.
“I think it reminds us that we need to be sensitive to it and that travelers have choices,” stated Aran Ryan, Tourism Economics Director of Industry Studies. “Making them concerned about where they’re going can cause them to shift elsewhere – so I think we need to be generally more stable as a destination.”
International arrivals to the United States have been down 3% yr over yr as of June, based on the National Travel and Tourism Office. Overseas arrivals alone have been down 1.2%.
According to the Tourism Economics report, the lower in worldwide guests will likely be felt probably the most in a few of the cities near the northern border. Seattle tops that checklist with a 26.9% anticipated decline from 2024 – with practically all of that attributed to Canadian visits.
Data on worldwide customer sentiment round gun violence particularly is scarce. However, a 2024 survey of 6,000 vacationers in Southeast Asia discovered that greater than 90% stated the prevalence of weapons in America influenced their determination to go to.
“Yet, 56% of those in the survey, commissioned by CNBC Travel and conducted by the market research firm Milieu Insight, said they are likely to visit the United States in the next few years,” the outlet reported. Among respondents who had beforehand visited the nation, “74% said they perceive gun violence to be a bigger issue in the United States today than in the past.”
The U.S. Travel Association instructed USA TODAY that regional evaluation of visits from abroad “shows few notable outliers, with most major regions outside North America tracking within a few percentage points of last year’s volumes.”
How widespread are shootings within the U.S.?
There have been 302 mass shootings within the United States up to now in 2025, based on the Gun Violence Archive. The group defines a mass capturing as one which entails 4 or extra folks shot or killed, excluding the shooter. There have been 503 in 2024, representing a lower from 659 the yr prior, however nonetheless considerably greater than the 332 in 2015.
A 2021 analysis by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation additionally discovered that the United States had comparatively excessive ranges of gun violence in comparison with different high-income international locations, with a firearm murder price of 4.5 per 100,000 folks. That quantity was 0.6 in Canada, against this, and 0.2 within the Netherlands.
Other international locations have additionally warned of gun violence in U.S. journey steering for his or her residents.
“Incidences of mass shootings occur, resulting most often in casualties,” Canada stated on its website, for instance. “Although tourists are rarely involved, there is a risk of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Others, resembling Australia and the U.K., equally point out “gun crime” of their U.S. journey recommendation.
Kooi and her household are planning to take practically a month off to journey by camper van subsequent summer time. Her dream has been to journey via states like Arizona and Nevada within the Western United States, however her husband “is really uncomfortable and feels it’s unsafe,” she stated. They’re going to Portugal and Spain as an alternative.
For Jessamine and her household, a attainable journey to Alaska can be up within the air.
“I guess we don’t want to spend our travel dollars in the United States right now, just for – how we perceive what is important to people in the U.S. is not necessarily aligning with who we are.”
Contributing: Eve Chen
(This story was up to date to refresh headlines and make clear info.)
Nathan Diller is a client journey reporter for USA TODAY primarily based in Nashville. You can attain him at [email protected].
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