Actually by shorties, I was referring to little people. (You knew there had to be a midget joke in there somewhere. )
Um, you're paranoid. Did 9/11 do it to you? If NYC is such a sh*thole, why not just move? If you feel so endangered, that you have to carry more knives than a West Side Story gang, why stay there? It can't be for the quality of life.
At noon of 9/11, I drove to my local gunshop and purchased an M1A. I wanted some extra stopping power. Living roughly an hour from Mahattan, I felt a certain amount of unease with the carnage these vermin caused that day, but I also knew that the Garden state probably was not high on their list of high profile targets. And certainly not the bodunk town that I'm working and living in. But I did feel better getting some more stopping power. Within a day, I had a USP .45 Compact for whatever.
Then we had our own little piece of Terrorism. Our post office was hit with the Anthrax mail. Living only 3 to 4 miles from this site, and having purchased my latest weapons directly across the street from the Post Office, I began to make a realization. #1.) Al Queda was not going to roll down the streets of Robbinsville NJ. #2.) Was I going to shoot the Anthrax?
So I began to think, hey with 20 plus guns under my ownership, maybe I'm a little paranoid. But as I see it and a lot of people probably do, there are real dangers of which we should all take heart. When Al Queda strikes our shores again, there will be a certain amount of apprehension among the public at large. If they are successful in distrubing the power grid, detonating some WMD or Nu-q-ler device, then there will be possibly Marshall Law or a mania within the citizenship that has not been witnessed in our lifetimes. It will be at this point, when the water doesn't flow, the AC doesn't work, the milk isn't being delivered when people will start to freak out. IMO, it will be someone nearby who intentionally or unintentionally does you harm over a loaf of bread or a gallon of gas. Until order is restored, we'll be on our own. Of course the hierarchy of the gov't will be safe, but you and I will be looking out for ourselves. At this point, all that planning and stuff you've spent your good money on, will pay off.
Maybe if I lived in NYC these days, I put a rocket launcher in my car to bring down the next mode of attack. I'm not sure. I'll tell you this. I was at Reagan's funeral procession on Constitution Ave and the Capitol police told everyone to move away from the street at once for their own safety. At the Capitol Bldg, they were running for their lives. A small plane belonging to the Gov. of Kentucky had a bad transponder and was considered an imminent threat. They were about three seconds shy of having a F15 vaporize them. IMO the next target will be in the DC vicinity. Those bastards came back for the WTC twice until they got it. They'll be doing the same to our seat of gov't. And I don't think they'll repave the same pavement, so all this airsafety stuff probably won't stop it from happening.
Anyways, I have gotten off the track of your question, but I think it gets to the crux of why all of us are paranoid, and why we will be looking over our shoulders for some time to come.