In New York however, in spite of the much greater population, I can not remember a single such case happening. Also in New York the only ones to carry guns were police or criminals. The regular citizen never carried a pistol to say nothing of a M-16 or Uzi machine gun. Also all security was done by professionals not regular citizens. All this is a general difference between Israel life and American life before the present Intifada began.
Intifada is the Arabic word for uprising.
However, since the current Intifada began some things are different. For instance, now when you pass a Arab village it is blocked off with dirt barriers and the highways are littered with rocks that the Arabs have thrown. When you try to come home after dark, good luck since Egged, the national bus company, does not travel on all roads anymore considered to be too dangerous. Also hitchhiking is much more difficult since people are scared to travel in the dark. When you travel now the road has numerous roadblocks to screen that only Israelis travel since Arabs have been known to shoot at Israeli cars.