How safe is Thailand?

Here’s a story that’s all over the news where I live: A man from Calgary, Canada (my hometown,) was shot and killed in Thailand by a Thai police officer this past Sunday. The shooting occurred after a scuffle involving the victim, John Leo Del Pinto, his friend Carly Reisig and the officer, and both Del Pinto and Reisig were shot. Reisig is currently recovering in the hospital from gunshot wounds to her chest, and insists that neither she nor Del Pinto did anything that would provoke such a deadly attack.

When my friend Jenny and I stuffed our rucksacks and bought plane tickets to Bangkok after our last semester of University, we had no doubts in our minds that we were heading to a country that was as safe for tourists as our own hometown. But it was harder to convince our parents and when a shooting happened at a bar we were at within the first week of our arrival, we avoided telling them about it in case we got the dreaded ‘we told you so’ conversation. However, that was an isolated incident in our months of travel and I still tend to believe that if you don’t cause trouble, it won’t find you. But I’m starting to question that logic.

I’m curious to know what you think — is Thailand safe?