But again, most of the crime in the UK is crime that doesn't require
any sort of firearm in order to handle that is a very US sensibility.
I took me maybe 10 minutes because I had to, like, park, do a three point turn
and kind of just show that I was, like, alive and at the steering wheel.
Hey, guys.
Welcome back to the Girl Gone London channel, if you're new here.
My name is Kalyn.
I'm an American who's lived in the UK for almost 10 years.
And today I'm answering the question of do I feel safer in the US or the U.K.?
Now, safety is a huge issue that people often kind of look up,
whether you're moving somewhere or whether you're visiting somewhere.
How safe do people feel?
How safe will I be?
And I do want to see that this video is not filled with statistics.
This is my personal experience.
And so that means that it is from an experience of somebody of my race,
my gender and my age, which is in my late twenties.
If you have different experiences, definitely comment below and let me know.
I can only compare what I have
experienced, which is again, why I'm not trying to claim that this is
a video about everybody's experiences of safety in either country.
These are just more categories that I feel
I can talk about and whether it makes me feel safe or not.
So the first thing I want to talk about,
and I've kind of come up with a few different categories, again,
to compare the countries and my experiences in the countries.
The first one, which is more London
centric, is CCTV, which is basically security cameras or security footage.
London is one of the most CCTV filled cities in the entire world.
I think it ranks like three or four.
It's definitely up there and definitely no American city compares.
This is really well known about London.
There is controversy of whether it should be filled with so much CCTV tracking
everybody every move for me, I feel like this gives me a level
of safety in London that I do feel things are being watched.
If a crime were to occur,
that hopefully it would be caught on some sort of CCTV footage.
And again, I'm only talking about London on this one
and I am not talking about the rest of the UK, but in general, London.
It is worth pointing out, first of all,
is like a really safe city statistically anyway.
But there's a lot of CCTV and that makes me feel more comfortable.
Now, the next thing I want to talk about
is actually going away from cities or rural and taking it to the road.
So let's talk about safety on the road.
I think this is something that a lot
of people overlook, but I kind of wanted to include it because
it is part of why I ultimately feel safer in one country over the other.
So here in the UK, they have what's called an emotive.
This means that your car needs to be tested by a mechanic or a garage,
a licensed one, every single year to make sure that it is roadworthy.
Now, when they're doing this check,
they're not necessarily checking for cosmetic things or things that would
affect how the car runs or how it performs for you.
They're testing whether this car is roadworthy and safe to be on the road.
Makes sense
when you compare this to the state that I'm most familiar with,
which is Florida in the U.S., we don't have anything like this.
We used to have vehicle inspections,
I think, back in the day, but it hasn't been a thing for like 20 years.
So you can basically drive whatever car
you want at whatever time, in whatever situation it's in on the road.
I didn't even realize this is something
to be nervous about until my British husband brought this up.
Like, don't you feel kind of uncomfortable
that, like, the guy behind you could have a car that's about to explode?
And I hadn't really thought of it before.
But now that I do know about almaty's
and I have lived in the UK, I can say that when it comes
to roadworthiness of the cars driving around me, I definitely prefer the UK.
The other thing to mention,
and I am going to do a video on driving in the UK versus the US,
but I can tell you that the driving test in the UK is like an actual driving test
that takes about an hour and you really got to know your stuff to pass.
They take you on the actual roads in Florida.
Again, the state I'm most familiar with,
which is why I cannot compare it to other states.
So comment below if your state is different.
But in Florida,
when I passed my driving test, we definitely went in a parking lot.
I think we went like on a really slow
neighborhood back road for like twenty miles an hour and took me maybe ten
minutes because I had to, like, park, do a three point turn and kind of just
show that I was like alive and at the steering wheel.
And so when I compare that to the driving test that people in the UK have to go
through, it's pass, I would say probably feel safer with UK drivers on the road.
That doesn't mean that everyone here is a good driver.
It doesn't mean that everyone in the US is
a bad driver or that I just feel unsafe there.
I'm not saying I feel unsafe in the US on the road.
I'm just saying if I have to make a comparison and make and make a judgment
on which country I feel safer in, it would be the UK.
Now, the next topic to get into is
probably the one you clicked on this video for, and that has to do with guns.
So guns are not legal in the UK except.
We're very, very specific instances,
these relate to like farmers needing them for their livestock.
I think there are a couple other things
related to exporting guns or sporting rifles.
But in terms of handguns,
semiautomatic guns, things like that, not allowed, not OK,
and not part of the culture here that people care about having guns.
Obviously, being from the U.S., I can speak to this.
We do have a gun culture.
You will probably experience my opinions
about guns as I get through this comparison.
But we definitely live in a society
that makes it so much easier to own a gun, whether it's for hunting your safety,
personal safety or whatever you feel like it's for.
Compared to the UK, there is no gun culture here.
They are not allowed.
And obviously that makes me feel pretty safe.
I enjoy going to the shopping mall, the movie theater or whatever and not
fearing that some mass gun violence is going to occur.
They did have some instances here in the UK.
A particular one is called Dunblane,
a really tragic incident that changed a lot of their gun laws.
Not that they were like America before,
but definitely made it so that the British public got behind this idea of guns not
being allowed, not being OK, not being something that people needed.
And it's just such a different
culture and atmosphere surrounding firearms than exists in the US.
And again, I know that there are very
specific instances where they are allowed here.
And sure, I'm sure that some criminals do have access to them or could get them
illegally, but it is much, much, much more difficult.
So in that sense, again, I would much prefer to live in the UK.
If you are comparing on that topic, I feel much more secure.
There are other types of crimes.
There are things like knife crimes, but nothing that would really allow a sort
of mass crime or mass casualty event like we really sadly experience in the US.
Now, on the topic of firearms, did you know that most UK police officers
are not even armed with a gun they are armed with like a Taser,
or they might have some other kind of lesser weapons, but the society isn't
armed and most of the police officers are either.
Now, people often ask me if this makes me feel unsafe.
And first of all, I would say that there always is kind
of a part of me that has grown up being fearful of gun violence and gun incidents.
And so occasionally I do wonder,
you know, like how long would it take for the police officers who do have guns
to arrive at the scene of some crime were to happen.
But again, most of the crime in the UK is crime that doesn't require
any sort of firearm in order to handle that is a very US sensibility.
There is a real atmosphere here
of policing, not by force, whereas I think in the US we have more
of a police by force culture, which is a whole nother topic.
But here in the UK,
police officers are definitely seen in a different light than in the US.
They're not really people to be scared of.
I would say most people sometimes maybe go
the opposite direction and definitely aren't scared of them enough.
But there is not a culture of policing by force or by firearms here.
I did mention and I do want to point out
that some police officers and I don't know, comment below, if you can tell me,
like, which ones are specifically licensed or if they're called something different.
But some police officers and some units
are licensed to use firearms and do carry them in the UK.
So it's not that like nobody no police officer has access to one.
It's just that the ones that you'll
usually pass, like walking down the street probably don't.
But there are armed police officers and often I see them at train stations
and in other crowded areas, which always makes me feel a bit safer.
They can be called into an incident, like I said.
But if you're a Brit, comment below, let me know more on that.
Like I said, this is a video of my personal
experiences, not a deep dove into the safety or statistics of both places.
I just know that in general, most British police officers do not carry
guns and guns are not allowed in the UK in most instances.
Now, the last thing I want to talk about is personal safety.
And I try to think of a way to compare this.
It's so difficult because it's so hard to compare like a village
in southeast England with New York City or the suburbs of Florida with London.
So it's really, really hard, I think, to say, do I personally feel safer,
just like on a daily basis walking around in the US or the UK?
But if I do have to compare and I'm going to go ahead and compare London to cities
that I've been in, in the US, places like New York City, I lived in Pittsburgh for.
A while for my undergraduate degree,
which I really loved, but I would say that I have felt
personally safer in London and London by itself, just without any kind
of comparison, like I said, is a really safe city.
The crime rates, I think, are much lower than a lot of major cities.
And a lot of people have their own problems with London.
But for me,
as a single woman who was not a single woman now, but like if I'm walking around
by myself, if I stayed late for drinks after work or something like that,
I have never been in a situation in London where I felt unsafe or threatened.
Obviously, you do have to have street smarts.
Don't be walking by yourself at 3:00 a.m. in a dark alley.
Don't be walking down a dark alley anyway.
But in general, when it came to my feeling of safety in London versus my feeling
of safety in other places that I've been in the US, I'm going to go ahead and have
to give the Personal Safety Feeling Award to London.
And that basically means that every single
category I've come up with road safety, physical safety,
guns versus no guns,
police officers and things like that, I pretty much answered that I feel safer
in the UK and I want to point out some things.
Number one, that isn't to say that I never
that I ever felt unsafe in the US or that I've been in a situation in like a US
city where I was walking around and felt threatened or unsafe.
It's not that when I go back to the U.S.
and I'm driving, I look at every car around me wondering if it's roadworthy.
So this is really me having to make
a decision in order to film this video and to really have an opinion on it.
It's not that I feel like the US is incredibly dangerous for me.
Personal day to day life perspective.
That being said, when it does come to gun
violence, obviously the US is off the charts, much more dangerous.
And also we do want to acknowledge that,
again, this is based on my experience, based on my race, gender and age.
And I know that different people will have different experiences in either country,
really, of how safe they feel related to these different categories,
which is why I would totally welcome you to leave a comment below.
Again, this is not to be taken for,
you know, of research, statistics, video or video speaking for everyone or
anyone except myself and my own feelings, comparing how I felt in both countries.
So safe to say the UK did win.
And that is one of the things along with the NHS that does make me
really enjoy and feel comfortable in my life in the UK.
It's not to say don't miss the US or
that I think the US is like a terrible place because if you watch some
of my other videos, you'll know that's not the case.
But if we're answering the safety U.S. vs.
U.K. comparison, the UK ended up winning.
OK, so that brings me to the end of the video.
Get involved in the conversation below or subscribe if you want to hear more about
my opinions or experiences of life in the UK versus the US.
I hope you enjoy the video and I'll see you guys next time.