URGENT: Safety in Guatemala- Should I cancel trip?

The guns in no way create a safety issue. I was in El Tejar and our hotel had a range for target practice. As in Oregon states with lots of guns and a Right to open carry as well as "shall issue" concealed weapons laws, the gun crime rate is low. Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and other gun ban type places have high rates of crime committed with and without guns. Criminals prefer unarmed victims. Guatemala City has gun laws as well. I have spent very little time there. There has never been one instance where a gun jumped up and injured anyone without human assistance. Bad people are a problem when armed with a club or knife as well, sheesh a car even.

Criminals prefer unarmed victims.

Unfortunately this makes foreigners, tourists prime targets because they don't(can't) carry weapons.

Unfortunately this makes foreigners, tourists prime targets

False, but as in Guatemala, there is no law on here about making **** up.

Foreigners and tourists, far from being "prime targets," are actually very infrequently targeted (largely because criminals know that this is a great way of getting into deep Pacaya).

There has never been one instance where a gun jumped up and injured anyone without human assistance.

That's right, not without human assistance, but with an ape's assistance it happened: http://youtu.be/GhxqIITtTtU

An ape defeating the monkeys! :-)

Actually tourists can carry and there is a way to bring them on the plane. You gotta tell people and locked box etc. I never have have always been unarmed in Guate and never felt unsafe. I admit I prefer to be armed. It is not easy to stop a strong young nutjob intent on harming others without one. I hope to live in Guate if I can get out of all the work I have to deal with here in the USSA. I would never consider living in a place that did not respect a right to self defense. Guate seems to be a lot more "free" then what our Republic has devolved into, sadly.

Guatemala is fine, just exercise a bit of common sense.

We spent over a month there and never experienced, or witnessed anything remotely concerning.

However if you go there clutching so many fears, you'll have no chance of enjoying it and therefore have little point in even going...

You gotta tell people

Yeah, you've got to do more than that... it's possible for tourists to bring firearms in by going through a procedure with the embassy, but fortunately nobody really does that (it's a practice reserved for security forces, etc.). Walking around as a tourist with a firearm is ill-advised to say the least.

Actually tourists can carry and there is a way to bring them on the plane. You gotta tell people and locked box etc.

I'm somewhat surprised to hear that. I always thought it takes much more than just "you gotta tell people" to carry a gun abroad, but I take your word for it since I never owned a gun(living in safe country with ridiculous laws which until a few years ago effectively banned(!) self defence).

gotta tell people means paperwork

tdlopez: "There has never been one instance where a gun jumped up and injured anyone without human assistance"..

How do you reconcile that with all the deaths and injuries of children in the US who have found and played with their parents guns?..i.e.the innocents? (as opposed to the ones who take their parents guns and shoot up their school).. The "guns don't hurt people, people do" is such a trite old naive argument. Children don't shoot themselves by accident in the UK because their parents don't have guns.