I know people who happily didn't live behind quite such an armored fortress.

Murder rate is high. Robbery rates are high. But let's not paint it like a war zone. Some neighborhoods are worse than others (understatement of the year).

According to this, 80% of violence is localized in small areas between people who know each other.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8668615.stm

People across the whole country have walls around their yards, but that's as much for petty crime as it is for murder or violence.

There are as many bars on the windows in half the neighborhoods in Brooklyn as there are anywhere in SA.

SA has a crime problem, but you don't necessarily have to live in a fortress with an armed guard and 8 door locks. You can, but you don't.

Ironically (or not ironically), South Africa has similar violence issues that we have in our gun-happy country. Shooting intruders. Keeping weapons around. Racism.