[Sobel]

What U.S. cities would you never want to be without being armed? Places that come to mind are anywhere in New Jersey, Detroit, and Philly. I had a flight returning to Orlando from Ny and had to make a stop in Jersey as we were approaching the airport you could actually see the cop cars with their lights on it certainly made me apprehensive.

Any stories are much appreciated.

[allaroundhunter]

Detroit, El Paso, and Memphis.... Mainly the last two.

[Sobel]

Detroit, El Paso, and Memphis.... Mainly the last two.
Any personal reason behind that?

[mnrivrat]

There are area's of most large cities that I would not go into without being armed.
That said, I will just make sure I do not go there.

[allaroundhunter]

Any personal reason behind that?

Reason being that El Paso is right on the Texas-Mexico border and the drug war can spill over quite easily. Memphis because it is also a very dangerous city, and gunfire has actually erupted whilst my father was there. Detroit, well, you have it on your list as well so I'm sure you understand that one.

[yeahbuddy]

1. Bogota, Columbia

2. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

3. Port-au-Prince, Haiti

[Sobel]

1. Bogota, Columbia

2. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

3. Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Any in America?

[allaroundhunter]

1. Bogota, Columbia

2. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

3. Port-au-Prince, Haiti

I was trying to stay in the US....I would not want to be ANYWHERE in Central/South America unarmed...

[Sobel]

I was trying to stay in the US....I would not want to be ANYWHERE in Central/South America unarmed...
Yea South America seems a bit dangerous all around. Something about cops being afraid of the drug cartels makes it seem much less appealing as a vacation spot

[RhinoDefense]

I won't go unarmed in any city. Period.

[Sobel]

I won't go unarmed in any city. Period.
Doesn't that make you feel sad ? Was there ever a time you would have gone unarmed

[Twiki357]

I was thinking: Here; There; and everywhere in between.

[yeahbuddy]

Ok, you didn't say it was limited to the U.S.
The top 3 most dangerous (according to various news outlets) seem to be
1. Flint
2. Detroit
3. St. Louis

[Sobel]

Ok, you didn't say it was limited to the U.S.
The top 3 most dangerous (according to various news outlets) seem to be
1. Flint
2. Detroit
3. St. Louis
Good point, I should probably change that. I expect if I don't it will end up being a list of South American cities.

[yeahbuddy]

^Don't forget Africa. I hear it's a good idea to be well armed in Somalia.

[allaroundhunter]

^Don't forget Africa. I hear it's a good idea to be well armed in Somalia.

I hear it's a good idea just to stay out and let them take care of (or kill) themselves....

I'm sure you remember what happened during Operation Gothic Serpent, the operation leading to Black Hawk Down. CWO 3 Michael Durant and the men who went in to save him...they were all armed and it still went horribly wrong

[zxcvbob]

In no particular order: Chicago, East St Louis, and Mogadishu.

[LibShooter]

Mos Eisley, Tatooine
Gotham City
South Park, Colorado

[Dr.Mall Ninja]

! North St.Louis ( I Live in st.louis, and feel it is worse then the eastside)
2 Washington DC
3 San Fransico ( To many people trying to steal my guns)

[Sobel]

Mos Eisley, Tatooine
Gotham City
South Park, Colorado
I like it

[HOWARD J]

I live 5 minutes from Detroit.
I don't have to go there to pick up my CPL renewl anymore.
I has been 5 years since I have been there & I hope I never have to go there again.
I lived in the city for about 31 years--I watched A great city slowly destroyed---what a shame.

[Cal-gun Fan]

Surprised nobody has said Oakland yet.

[Dr_B]

Memphis, TN. Atlanta, GA. Detroit, MI. Just to name three. There are many others.

[49north]

Spokane WA, Seattle WA and Missoula, MT
The only cities that are graced by my presence.
And very nice cities they are, indeed!

[Sobel]

I live 5 minutes from Detroit.
I don't have to go there to pick up my CPL renewl anymore.
I has been 5 years since I have been there & I hope I never have to go there again.
I lived in the city for about 31 years--I watched A great city slowly destroyed---what a shame.
what caused the change?

[mgmorden]

I have a very short list of cities I've even visited: Charlotte (NC), Raleigh (NC), Charleston (SC), Greenville (SC), Columbia (SC), Atlanta (GA), Orlando (FL), and Miami (FL).

I try to carry wherever I am, but I can honestly say that out of all those the only one that I'd feel literally PANICKED to be in without being armed would be Atlanta. Miami would come in second. The rest are all about equal.

[JohnhenrySTL]

I'm with you Dr. Mall Ninja.

[JPG19]

Any of them.

[RhinoDefense]

Doesn't that make you feel sad ? Was there ever a time you would have gone unarmed
No it doesn't. The world has always, is, and will always be an evil place. That's life.

I always have a gun on me. I don't care where I am, I am armed.

[Emberglo]

Chicago, IL
San Juan, PR
Oakland, CA

[GMcBoozer]

Same 3 cities I wouldn't go in WHILE armed.

[kd7nqb]

1. Detroit
2. Philidelphia
3. Washington D.C.

[JShirley]

Closed pending review.

[Sam1911]

No it doesn't. The world has always, is, and will always be an evil place. That's life.

Precisely. If you want to read of the "most dangerous cities in [Fill In The Blank]" there are plenty of new articles, web pages, etc. which give the statistics for that kind of thing -- go look them up if you want the data.

Truth is, it really doesn't matter which city is statistically most dangerous -- or even which ones freak you out personally the most. You won't be robbed, assaulted, or killed by a statistic, and you won't be able to protest your robbery, assault, or death on the basis of the facts that you weren't in a city that scares you, or where you were statistically likely to be targeted.

No city -- nor small town, nor rural crossroads -- should be considered "safe" for you to travel in a state of blissful "Condition White" unawareness. Conversely, no (American, anyway) city is so dangerous that you cannot take realistic precautions to survive the visit absent any physical armaments. (Which is a good thing, as many of our "most dangerous" cities are places where you can't lawfully carry a firearm or other weapons anyway.)

Honestly, the "I'd be panicked, terrified" comments are a little silly. I've worked years in Philadelphia, Boston, D.C., and spent time in a number of other large eastern cities. Truth is, they're full of millions of normal folks who go about their lives year after year without crippling fear -- almost all of them without the benefit of concealed sidearms, too! Bad things happen sometimes, and folks do develop certain instincts about where not to go and how not to act, but by and large they are not all just sheep marching toward their eventual slaughter.

606,000 residents of Washington D.C., proper. 420,000 residents living in Atlanta. 951,000 people live in Detroit. 8 MILLION human beings survive every day in New York City. But "we" would be terrified to spend the day in any of them without a firearm? That's reaching a level of absurdity that makes us look more than a little nutz.

Look, I'm a STRONG supporter of universal right-to-carry laws, and I loathe the idea of being lawfully disarmed. But my risks of dying in a car wreck are higher than the chances that I'm going to be killed on a trip down into the District this year, by far. I worry that we're disconnected with reality, and I worry that we're so focused on THE GUN, that we've come to believe that gun = safe and no-gun = death, when that is only about the last 1% of the picture.

We are fond of saying never go someplace WITH a gun that you would not go WITHOUT one. Think really hard about that.