After a wedding in NYC we had planned to take Amtrak down to Washington DC, spend a few days there, hire a car and drive around Virginia before flying back to the UK. Are we now mad to do this with the sniper at large?? Flights are all booked and we basically have 2 weeks in the US, flying into NYC and out of Dulles. If I look at any more maps I'll go mad - I just knew we should have flown out of Boston!! We could spend longer in NYC although we have been there before and check out stuff a little further afield ie. Botanical Gardens etc. Surely it's safe to spend maybe 3 days in Washington DC as long as we stay in the City. Help....

Regarding the "hire a car and drive around Virginia" part of your post. Even if there were not a sniper, I would suggest you stay in Washington, DC, not hire a car, take the Metro to see Washington.

As far as is it safe - statistically, it is safe. Only 9 people have died from this sniper. Measured against all the people in the Washington area, that is a tiny percentage. However, the people who were shot are obviously 100% dead - statistics did not matter to them. The real question is would you be able to enjoy yourself or would you be constantly looking over your shoulder for a sniper? That is an emotional answer, not completely goeverned by statistics that only you can answer.

Enjoy your trip to our country. Don't kick yourself with second guesses about where you SHOULD HAVE made reservations - how could you have predicted this crazy person was going to be shooting people.

Don't waste energy second-guessing your plan -- as Gail said, you couldn't have predicted this -- it could just as easily turned out to be a sniper in Boston!

The shootings have been in the DC suburbs, so go ahead and enjoy DC itself and the rest of the fine, beautiful, historic state of Virginia. So much historic stuff from the Revolution and the Civil War, very enlightening for folks from the UK! Don't miss Monticello.

(Technically, the people who were shot are not 100 percent dead, as there are 2 survivors as well as the 9 fatailities.)

I think your plan is fine. You hadn't planned on spending time at surburban shopping centers on the trip???

DC has so many police officers keeping the touristy area safe. Yes, it's a big deal that 'regular' citizens are being shot, but just imagine if a senator or ambassador was shot. Or if there was a situation at a monument. The DC area police will not let this happen.

If you are coming in the next couple of weeks, the leaves will be changing color and are quite beautiful in the mountains.

From Washington take I-66 west until the Skyline drive. Take that south through the mountains. Go to Richmond, Charlottesville, Williamsburg no snippers there (praise be)

Rozanne, You can see DC monuments from a vehicle but the real emotion of them can only been felt by getting up close. If you want to see these things, do so. It is a very sad fact of crime in this country that your chances of being victim of a violent crime, or even a traffic fatality for that matter, will not be reduced by this sniper being caught. The risk will always be there. Take the chance if you feel the anxiety won't ruin your trip.

Nora: Did you forget about our Williamsburg snipers the week before the DC sniper started? Yes, in our safe little town. The point being that there will always be an element of danger in our lives whether it is criminals, car accidents, or disease. We can't stop living our lives.

There was a Williamsburg sniper? Yikes! I'm pretty good about reading the paper and I didn't see anything about it.

Plan for tomorrow, live for today.

Four kids spent a night driving around and shooting at storefronts and people. One young man riding a bicycle was killed. A soldier driving home was shot in his car. Thankfully the kids were caught but not until after the first sniper killing in DC. There were a few hours when we thought the snipers were the same.