Known as the “land of opportunity”, the US is a very popular destination for students choosing to take a year abroad, with nearly 950,000 international students studying there in the 2021/22 academic year, 10,000 of which were from the UK. As well as souvenirs and tales of their travels, many return with stories of shooting alerts whilst studying, something that UK students will be unfamiliar with. The threat of gun crime may be an ever-present facet of life in the US, but how considerable is this risk? And how ubiquitous of an experience is it for prospective students?
Speaking to American masters’ students at the university of Edinburgh, all of whom completed undergraduate degrees in the US, they claimed that whilst it can take many forms, a high percentage of gun violence is gang related, and that whilst attending public minority-representing events, such as Pride or political rallies, there was an added stress factor that there could be an attack. One attended Temple University in North Philadelphia, situated in a notably dangerous area, and mentioned that there had been much violence in the region. All described receiving frequent notifications from campus security with warnings of a nearby shooting, but they had rarely experienced one on campus.
When asked about what would be important for a prospective international student to consider when thinking about a year abroad in the US, they brought attention to individual state laws on gun control, and to research each university’s method of security. When asked how prevalent a problem gun violence is on university campuses, they all agreed that most of their experiences have not been directly related to university, and that it is a much broader element of daily life.
One student who lived in Georgia before coming to Edinburgh noted that she hadn’t received a gun safety warning at all whilst there. However, she was quick to add that it was currently a Democrat “blue” state, which, from the resounding chorus at the table, seemed to make a discernible difference. It appeared that, whilst fraternities in the big US schools do manage to find access to guns, especially if they are from a Southern family, gun violence mostly occurs outside the classroom for university students; it plays more of a part in day-to-day life, for example whilst attending a party, and the cases they had heard of had almost always involved alcohol.
The bigger issue is in high schools. Many will have heard of at least one incident of an American high school shooting, and this has been attributed this to high schoolers’ easy access to their parents’ guns, while belongings in university dorms can be subject to random security checks.
Aidan Incagnoli, a university of Edinburgh student who spent a year studying at Cornell University in New York, offered another perspective. Born in the US and returning annually, Aidan was not unused to hearing gunshots in his father’s low-income neighbourhood, and noted: “gun violence is a seemingly immutable fact of American life. I considered the risk of gun violence in the same way I considered the cost of flights: an unfortunate but unavoidable reality.” Whilst studying at Cornell, Aidan experienced a shooting scare, which occurred a month into his studies. “To say that the campus was on edge would be an understatement.” Aidan urged prospective students to do their research, and whilst it definitely shouldn’t be a reason to not go, it is important to be aware. He added: “Elsewhere in the world, the classroom would likely be considered an environment of comparative safety. Not so in America.”
It would be naïve and incorrect to dismiss the UK’s prevalence of crime in major cities. To compare the statistics, knife crime seems to be on the rise in the UK, with 50,510 knife-enabled crimes recorded by the police in the year ending March 2024, a four per cent rise from the previous year, while gun violence rates are falling in America, with homicides down 13.1 per cent in the year to date compared to 2023. Nevertheless, in 2022, the US recorded 144.63 gun-related deaths per million, and the UK only 3.64 knife-enabled deaths per million.
The situations concerning crime in the UK and US are difficult to compare, but safety on campus must always be a high priority. Students considering a year abroad in the US are offered support and guidance on how to stay safe whilst studying abroad by the university’s Study and Work Away service, and it is always important to be aware of the potential risks when travelling. However, these concerns should not prevent you from accessing the enormous benefits to be gained by completing an exchange abroad.
Photo by Samantha Sophia on Unsplash.