Okay, what I meant was even the tough kids didn’t attack innocent bystanders. There were gangs in my town who fought each other...and often very roughly sometimes with bats and chains. But adults were not involved. No adult had to worry about being savaged by a bunch of punks.
We weren't a gang, we merely protected ourselves against the only gang in the area, the Pachukos, plus the non gang high school kids. Kids our age(around 5 to 9)were targets of these people and had to do something to protect ourselves when we were out and about.
The alternative was to sit at home all day long hiding. We chose not to be victims.
As I said we didn't hurt people without cause, only in self defense. We didn't steal, beat up or other wise harm others who weren't bothering us.
As for the Pachukos and weapons, they carried potatoes with razor blades imbedded in them(the old style double sided)bicycle chains and, on occasion, home made zip guns, with switch blade knives being owned by most of them.
The drug trade hadn't really started up yet so they couldn't afford real guns.