Does Amsterdam have a lot of armed muggings in the street?

Question

When I was over there visiting, I kept hearing I needed to soo soo careful, and I am wondering why. In hindsight, there was nothing scary. Even the red light district.

Is there a gun problem in the city?

Answer 1

Apart from one sub-urb quite far from the city center, non at all.

You need to be careful with your bag and purse, but arms are not allowed and not many people will carry one around.

Armed robberies on stores are less rare, but tourists are nearly never even near those.

When I hear the stories about the dangers in some American towns I thank heavens that I live in the Netherlands.

Answer 2

I found the place to be pritty safe.. when i was in the red light people thought i was crazy for being from LA. i did have an encounter with a few kids in their late teens after midnight who i thought where trying to rob me ... one grabbed my arm and the others kind of surrounded me.. i pushed pushed one of them in the chest..they kind of backed off  one of them said "hey take it easy buddy" was kind of weird.. probablly the closest i was to being robbed or i think?

Answer 3

No, other than pickpocketing and bike theft it's a very safe city. Your correct, there is nothing scarey about Amsterdam. I've been there many times alone day and night and have never had any problems.

Fabulous city!

Answer 4

Well most of those warnings were always more or less directed to "pickpockets". Armed robbery was not very common and wasn't really something that i worried about while living there.

Answer 5

The Netherlands doesn`t have a lot of people with guns.

Also, Amsterdam (as any major city) does have it`s criminal elements, but the worst are pickpockets.

Since they try no-risk actions they wouldn`t get violent.

If you are careful, and don`t have valuables / wallets on you that can be snatched easily - you should be okay.