Security is a big issue, no need to spell out why. It starts with pre-screening before you even board a flight to the USA. You cannot 'check-in' without providing reasonably comprehensive background information.
In the US, certainly in the cities I've recently visited, security at point of entry remains tight. Airport style security screening operates for all major tourism attractions, many museums and most art galleries. It varies from institution to museum, I virtually had to disrobe to enter the Native American Museum at Battery Park whereas the guys at the Natural History Museum were too busy talking sport to actually look inside my rucksack.
None of the Churches, restaurants, shops or cinemas were bothered what I was carrying, and neither were the Universities.
We visited three, Newark, Baltimore and up-state New York. Security was surprisingly absent. There were no checks getting on site, no checks getting into buildings and while some individual rooms had pass only entry, most common areas were open for a stranger to enter unchallenged.
In our local UK University, you cannot get beyond the entrance hall to any building without an escort or security pass, yet you can get into most museums and art galleries with only a cursory inspection, largely consisting of whether or not you are in possession of an entry ticket.
The Virginia shooting is tragic yet the conditions which allow such events to happen are evident not only in the ease in obtaining weaponary, but the simplicity of moving around an open campus unchallenged. It would be cruel to suggest artifacts are valued, in the USA, higher than human life, but it does strike me that security ought to start with protecting life rather than the vaunted collections of wealthy individuals.
In the US, certainly in the cities I've recently visited, security at point of entry remains tight. Airport style security screening operates for all major tourism attractions, many museums and most art galleries. It varies from institution to museum, I virtually had to disrobe to enter the Native American Museum at Battery Park whereas the guys at the Natural History Museum were too busy talking sport to actually look inside my rucksack.
None of the Churches, restaurants, shops or cinemas were bothered what I was carrying, and neither were the Universities.
We visited three, Newark, Baltimore and up-state New York. Security was surprisingly absent. There were no checks getting on site, no checks getting into buildings and while some individual rooms had pass only entry, most common areas were open for a stranger to enter unchallenged.
In our local UK University, you cannot get beyond the entrance hall to any building without an escort or security pass, yet you can get into most museums and art galleries with only a cursory inspection, largely consisting of whether or not you are in possession of an entry ticket.
The Virginia shooting is tragic yet the conditions which allow such events to happen are evident not only in the ease in obtaining weaponary, but the simplicity of moving around an open campus unchallenged. It would be cruel to suggest artifacts are valued, in the USA, higher than human life, but it does strike me that security ought to start with protecting life rather than the vaunted collections of wealthy individuals.
