Yeah and if we try to tell them they think we must be "one of those ignorant racist Americans" that they hear so much about. Us dumb American's don't know anything about the US, we just live here!
My Swiss cousin tried to hike through Detroit during a trip to the US a couple of years ago, he didn't bother to mention that this was part of his "touring the US" plan. Yes Detroit, one of the most dangerous cities in America where 70% of all homicides go unsolved. He had his fancy backpack and gear and was walking towards the city when a man mowing his grass asked him "What are you doing???"
Thank God the man asked, he promptly told my cousin that he could not walk into Detroit, and he drove him to the other side of the city. If he had not done that my naive cousin surely would have been attacked/robbed and quite possibly killed. BTW Switzerland has one of the lowest crime rates in the world and also a tremendous amount of fully automatic assault weapons in civilian homes, their laws don't keep them safe, the standards set by their people do.