US travel safety: Australian tourists seem happy to ignore America's gun violence problem

Let's pretend this country is in Africa. Pretend it's wedged in there between, say, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This country has culture and history and impressive natural attractions – it would usually be a popular travel destination.

Except, it has a major problem. With gun violence. At least once a day, sometimes more, there's a mass shooting in this African country. Often the victims are indiscriminate, random.

People open fire here in supermarkets with high-powered weaponry, spraying the aisles with bullets in acts of racial hate. They storm into schools and kill children. They attack churches and nightclubs. They fire bullets from rooftops into crowded street parades. They open windows in their hotel rooms and rain terror down on unsuspecting concert-goers in major tourist destinations.

There's never any warning for these attacks. No pattern. They could happen anywhere, anytime. And the baffling thing is that this African nation does nothing about it, even though it happens again and again and again, far more than in any other country. These people just love their guns, and nothing – no amount of violence, no number of random killings – will shake their belief in keeping them.

Would you go to this place on a holiday? To an African nation with more than one mass killing a day? Where random attacks on the general public are so frequent, so normal, that the media has to choose which ones to even report on?

Maybe you would. Though, there's also a fair chance you wouldn't. Africa as a continent already has a certain reputation. Travellers tend to be scared off fairly easily.

But now, take out the African element. Because it's obvious that the country I'm talking about here does exist. And it's called the US. The "land of the free" has an incredibly high rate of gun violence, more than supposedly dangerous neighbours such as Mexico, more than notorious battlegrounds such as South Africa.

Home of the brave? You bet. You would have to be. The random nature of the violence in the US is chilling. And yet this country is one of Australia's closest allies and traditionally one of our favourite tourist destinations. It's a wonderful country in many ways, as countless travellers could attest, a nation filled with charming, hospitable people, one that offers heart-warming, life-affirming experiences to all those (with the correct passport, visa and ongoing travel arrangements) who holiday there.

But is it dangerous? Check out Smart Traveller, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's travel advisory website, and you would say the answer is no. The US currently has a shiny, green "Exercise normal safety precautions" rating. Not many other places have that. France doesn't – it's yellow ("Exercise a high degree of caution"). Spain is the same. You should "Reconsider your need to travel" to orange-rated Mexico. Same with Brazil.