Amnesty International issues travel warning to the US

[cullennz]

Cos like mass shootings in the US are suddenly a new thing.



http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO19...arning-for-us-due-to-rampant-gun-violence.htm

Press Release: Amnesty International

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Global Human Rights Movement Issues Travel Warning for the U.S. Due to Rampant Gun Violence

Amnesty International today issued a travel warning calling for possible travelers and visitors to the United States to exercise extreme caution when traveling throughout the country due to rampant gun violence, which has become so prevalent in the United States that it amounts to a human rights crisis. It aims to hold up a mirror to the U.S. using the model of the United States Department of State’s travel advice for U.S. travelers to other countries.

“Travelers to the United States should remain cautious that the country does not adequately protect people’s right to be safe, regardless of who they might be. People in the United States cannot reasonably expect to be free from harm - a guarantee of not being shot is impossible,” said Ernest Coverson, campaign manager for the End Gun Violence Campaign at Amnesty International USA. “Once again, it is chillingly clear that the U.S. government is unwilling to ensure protection against gun violence.”


The travel advisory addressed growing gun violence, mostly hate crimes, including racism and discrimination, highlighting that the traveler's race, country of origin, ethnic background, sexual orientation or gender identity may place them at higher risk after recent attacks linked to white supremacist ideology.

The action called attention to the extent to which all aspects of life in the United States have been compromised in some way by unfettered access to guns, without comprehensive and uniform regulation of their acquisition and use. By prioritizing gun ownership over basic human rights, the U.S. government is willfully and systematically failing on multiple levels and ignoring its international obligations to protect people’s rights and safety.

Amnesty International has been calling for common sense reform regarding the use and possession of firearms, including comprehensive background checks, national regulations for registering and licensing firearms, required training, a ban on high capacity magazines/assault weapons, and mandatory safe-storage laws. Amnesty International USA’s campaign to end gun violence has focused efforts on passing S.42., the Assault Weapons ban, and the Disarm Hate Act.

Background

A report by Amnesty International, “In the Line of Fire: Human Rights and the U.S. Gun Violence Crisis” examined how all aspects of American life have been compromised in some way by the unfettered access to guns, with no attempts at meaningful national regulation.

Last month, Amnesty International published a report examining how survivors of gun violence in the United States suffer years of trauma and pain due to a destructive combination of government policies which ignore their needs.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

This is a publicity stunt.
A.I. does have a history of putting politics before facts, and the fact is that violent crime isn't especially high in the US and visitors aren't a target.

I think they would do better warning visitors not to carry large amounts of cash through counties practicing Civil Forfeiture.

 

[lionking]

Amnesty International. Idiots.

 

[Francesca R]

I get my travel advisory from the knitting website Ravelry, they haven't weighed in yet.

 

[dann]

This is a publicity stunt.
A.I. does have a history of putting politics before facts, and the fact is that violent crime isn't especially high in the US and visitors aren't a target.

I think they would do better warning visitors not to carry large amounts of cash through counties practicing Civil Forfeiture.

Even when they aren't targets, many visitors get killed in mass shootings anyway:

Jorge Calvillo García, who is from Torreón, Mexico, was in El Paso to visit his son, Luis, and his granddaughter, Emily.
(...)
Adolfo Cerros Hernandez, 68, and Sara Esther Regalado, 66: The couple's daughter, Sandra Ivonne Cerros, confirmed that her parents, who are Mexican, were killed in the attack.
(...)
Alexander Gerhard Hoffman, 66: Hoffman was a German citizen.
(...)
María Eugenia Legarreta Rothe, 58: Legarreta was from a well-known business family from the northwestern Mexican state of Chihuahua.
(...)
Elsa Libera Marquez, 57: Marquez worked as a special education teacher in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. She had family in El Paso and would cross the border every week to visit them
She had traveled from Chihuahua to El Paso to pick up her youngest daughter, Natalie, from the airport
(...)
Ivan Hilierto Manzano, 46: Manzano, from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, is being remembered as a devoted husband and father who worked in marketing and sales and was an avid marathon runner.
(...)
Teresa Sánchez de Freitas, 82: Sánchez de Freitas, 82, was visiting from Mexico when she was killed in the rampage.
Stories Of El Paso Shooting Victims Show Acts Of Self-Sacrifice Amid Massacre (NPR, Aug. 2019)

I'm not sure that all of the victims mentioned in the quotation were visitors, but some of them are explicitly mentioned as visitors. And apparently even Germans aren't safe from being considered illegal Latin American immigrants, ]which has been noticed in Germany. (Much the same way that an anti-Semite killed a couple of Christians a few years ago.)

 

[GnaGnaMan]

Bunch of countries like, eg, Japan issued travel warnings, too. Bit weird to report about AI. Unless, of course, you'd want to make up for it being less widely reproted.
It's normal for terror attacks to trigger travel warnings.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Which countries can guarantee visitors will not be shot?

 

[applecorped]

Which countries can guarantee visitors will not be shot?

New Zealand because everybody voluntarily gave up their guns, every single one of them.

 

[dann]

Which countries can guarantee visitors will not be shot?

I don't remember any tourists being shot in Denmark, but I can't guarantee that they won't be decapitated, 2 US college students killed while studying in Denmark (Fox News, May 9, 2017), or killed in the AI uprising, Runaway electric garbage truck kills U.S. tourist in Denmark (Fox News, Aug. 30, 2012).

ETA: I forgot about this very recent case, but they were a very particular kind of visitors:
Swedish gang leader shot dead in Copenhagen (TheLocal, June 26, 2019)

 

[cullennz]

Which countries can guarantee visitors will not be shot?

Hey. Everyone loves kiwis. Especially the US. It is the quaint accent, and our simple charm.

Wave my passport round a bit. Should be ok.

"Duck kiwi!" "I don't want to shoot you cos your nice, but want to shoot the dude behind you"

 

[Francesca R]

New Zealand because everybody voluntarily gave up their guns, every single one of them.

Wudda been much more sensible to arm all tourists and visitors

 

[cullennz]

New Zealand because everybody voluntarily gave up their guns, every single one of them.

Except everyone wasn't asked to give up their guns.

There are still plenty of legal guns.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Except everyone wasn't asked to give up their guns.

There are still plenty of legal guns.

Then how can NZ guarantee visitors won't be shot?

 

[Francesca R]

I think you need to ask the one who claimed that

 

[cullennz]

Then how can NZ guarantee visitors won't be shot?

We can't

No country can.

Think you might have missed my comment in the OP.

It was kind of an obvious comment on how stupid the Press release was.

 

[casebro]

Better to advise not to visit Africa- Africanized killer bees dontcha know.

Or traffic fatalities. Hmmm, I wonder where the US is compared to other tourist destinations? Perhaps safer to visit Chicago than Cairo?

 

[Dave Rogers]

Better to advise not to visit Africa- Africanized killer bees dontcha know.

Which only exist in the Americas, so that's even more reason for the warning.

Dave

 

[shemp]

I get my travel advisory from the knitting website Ravelry, they haven't weighed in yet.

Don't believe them, they're just spinning old yarns.

 

[Dave Rogers]

Don't believe them, they're just spinning old yarns.

Wins the thread.

Dave