If you think Aruba is ''safer'' then good luck and enjoy your trip. The shootings today, and lately in SXM have not involved (thank god) tourists, but sounds more gang and drug related. It happens anywhere. I guess if you feel Aruba is safer, you may want to contact the Holloway family and get their take. Their daughter's body was never even recovered. Also, you may want to stay in the comfort of your own home, because I don't think there is anywhere anymore that crime hasn't happened. When you have a million people or so, some living in poverty,and in small areeasthings happen...may it be Saint Maarten, Aruba, New York, Palm Beach, or anywhere!!!!! The murders lately in SXM, are not mass shootings, like the ones we have seen in ridiculous numbers here in the good old USA. Also, thankfully, they haven't involved our kids or our schools. To think that one place is safer than another just is wrong....and it's too bad that St. Martin is getting the press it's been getting. I am just praying that the authorities find these idiots, and give them what they deserve.