Being a postal carrier doesn’t seem like a bad gig. You get to walk around the neighborhood, drop some mail off, get to chat with residents and passersby. Of course, if you live in a cold-weather area, it might not be so fun in February slogging through freezing temperatures and slushy sidewalks. Still, I imagine being a coal miner would be a lot tougher.

But the life of a postal carrier has become more difficult in recent times, as more and more of them are getting robbed, all around the nation—sometimes even at gunpoint. Postal union executive vice president Paul Barner said conditions are growing intolerable:

“The National Association of Letter Carriers is outraged and angered by the assaults, armed robberies and even murders that America’s letter carriers increasingly face as they deliver the mail. These attacks are completely unacceptable,” he said.

Robberies of postal carriers surged 78 percent in 2022, according to data provided by U.S. Postal Inspection Service data. Over the last decade, crimes against USPS workers have quadrupled, and weapons increasingly are being used by the perps. In March, a Lowell Massachusetts postal carrier was slashed with a machete, and in December 2022, Milwaukee letter carrier Aundre Cross—an 18-year veteran of the postal service—was shot to death while on duty.

As I wrote in 2022, things got so dicey in one area of supposedly “tony” Santa Monica, California that carriers refused to deliver the mail.

“Every postal employee deserves to work in safety and to be free from targeting by criminals seeking to access the public’s mail,” said Michael Martel, spokesperson for the inspection service.

These stories posted to Twitter reveal that guns to the head are commonplace:

The USPS should suspend service in high crime areas of Milwaukee. They already had 1 postal delivery man murdered. Police Chief Norman is out wandering around looking for “community partners” to work with instead of fighting crime. He’s a dope. @NEWSMAX https://t.co/cqc1qoMqj8

— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) April 30, 2023

And:

8022 S Phillips: a USPS postal carrier was robbed at gunpoint. #Chicago #ChicagoScanner

— Spot News (@SPOTNEWSonIG) May 1, 2023

More:

A participant in a two-man August 2022 ‘gun to head’ robbery of a USPS mail carrier has pleaded guilty in federal court in #SanFrancisco. Leroy Wise was arrested by U.S. Postal Inspectors one day after the shocking Ingleside-district incident. #Crime https://t.co/tB6B7V3uGa pic.twitter.com/wWNpy5k4gU

— SF Public Safety News (@sf_safetynews) May 4, 2023

That’s just a sampling, but you get the idea of what these carriers are facing on a daily basis. Some of the criminals getting are getting more sophisticated and organized—and are now targeting the special keys that carriers use for collection boxes and apartment building mailboxes. Almost every day on NextDoor.com, I see complaints from my neighbors about sinister people lurking in the mailroom of local apartment buildings and stealing mail.

Adding to USPS’ woes, thieves are even targeting the iconic blue mailboxes on your corner, and postal officials are urging people not to use them:

USPS officials say that groups of criminals throughout the country are using the internet to strategically target drop-off boxes. Masterminds monitor collection times and swoop to drop boxes after the last pick-up of the day or on Sundays when there are no mail pick-ups. They also use federal holidays when the government does not have mail services to target collection boxes.

The postal service has vowed to improve safety for the carriers, who deliver 162.1 million pieces of first-class mail each day, but union officials say the time for talking is over, and that letter carriers “demand solutions now.”

I often write about crime and its causes, because it’s a serious problem for the average American, and our politicians—especially those on the left—don’t seem to give a damn. The fact that it’s dangerous to be a freaking postal carrier is yet another symbol of our decline.

Write a letter to your congressperson. Just don’t put it in a blue mailbox.