Taking up Tung's challenge below are the murder rates/100,000 compared between Colombia and the US from 1990 up to the latest 2007. I removed the TABS hoping it would display consistently across various PCs and Browsers. Displays best with a non-proportional typeface like Courier New.

I've been to Colombia 5-6 times. I try and travel in groups. When I am by myself I alway am very aware of my surroundings and like Tung I use my peripheral vision. To add validity, below the stats is the link to the reference page.

1990s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Colombia 70.0 79.0 78.0 76.0 71.0 66.0 67.8 63.3 56.6 58.6
US 9.4 9.8 9.3 9.5 9.0 8.22 7.41 6.80 6.3 5.7

2000s 2000 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Colombia 62.7 64.6 65.8 51.8 44.6 39.3 37.3
US 7.5 7.6 7.6 7.7 7.5 5.9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._homicide_rate

But I wonder what the murder rate would be in the US if we had been living with 50 years of a Civil War? Even with these dramatic number differences I'm still visiting in July.

Happy Mongering