I agree. You should be able to protect yourself ANYWHERE. I'm glad you're alright but I understand how you must feel. Just to think if you were delayed for some reason, it would have put you there with nothing to defend yourself with. One thing that struck me in the article was this quote, "You hear both of them (guns and fireworks) all the time. You get used to it,” Jarvis said. Sounds like a rough part of town.
A group of us went to NYC one time to take the Paramedic exam, so we could get on site scoring and we took it in an elementary school. While in the middle of the test there was the distinctive sound of gun fire right outside accompanied by screaming. Now my group looked up to see if we should act but everyone else just sat there like nothing happened. The gun fire stopped then came the sirens. We never went back there to take the test.