“BREAKING NEWS: Travel Advisory against Connecticut: American Woman Killed in Drug Conflict”

“After a 40-year-old American woman was shot dead in a conflict involving the cocaine trade, U.S. Officials have issued an official advisory against travel to Connecticut, and have strongly suggested that Americans avoid New England …”

Sounds absurd doesn’t it?

Well, this would be only a little more absurd than many headlines that are thrown out there about Mexico.  The only part that’s more absurd is that if someone were killed in a drug conflict in Connecticut it would be taken for granted that it is an American.  Also, it would be impossible for the millions of Americans in the area to avoid such travel!
But there are two ideas we need to notice; one is that we don’t avoid going to Connecticut or the surrounding area because people are killed in drug conflicts. The other is that people do, in fact, get killed in drug conflicts and similar senseless crime on a regular basis there, as in many other parts of the U.S.

You can read the news story here.

Yet, if an American were shot in a drug conflict in Tijuana, it would be all over the news, and some Americans would be canceling their trips to Cancun.

People should always be careful when they plan their travels, whether it’s in Mexico or in the U.S.  But the best tool is to be informed by actual data and not by sensational news stories.

-by Thomas Lloyd