Doesn't DC have one of the highest murder rates in the country? Whats to stop you from getting shot or into a bad car accident in Washington D.C.?
Point is, theres always going to be a risk, regardless of where you happen to live. Might as well go somewhere interesting (and make a good bit of $ while you're at it, in this case).
I'm a DC native, born and raised. For starters, almost all that violence is between subsistence drug dealers in areas of the city and PG County where the poster is unlikely to even drive through. It doesn't involve the yuppies at all, and it's a fraction of what it was in the mid nineties before gentrification kicked into overdrive.
Furthermore, he said he was in "Washington DC area", which is code for the wealthy suburbs where the vast majority of the population lives. Most work there too: the only jobs in DC proper are in NGOs, lobbying, civil service, and the service jobs to support them.
Point is, theres always going to be a risk, regardless of where you happen to live. Might as well go somewhere interesting (and make a good bit of $ while you're at it, in this case).