Guns

There was no reason for any of them to pull a gun out (if they were even in possession of one). I say this for the very fact that they knew each other, and while they weren't exactly best pals, I think resorting to more than just fists was simply out of the question. In real life, regardless of one's close association, there's a bigger chance someone will bring a knife to a fist fight, and a gun to a knife fight if something was to get out of hand, but with these people, it seemed fighting was the only way to handle business. Plus, it's very likely they just didn't want any heat on them; imagine, one of Joey's guys shoots Johnny Boy or any of Charlie's friends, and Joey isn't going to pay his way out of this one. I also doubt Charlie and his friends were carrying guns. Just my two cents of course.

As for the kid shooting the drunk bloke, it is real simple, they didn't wanted to get involved. The way they reacted to the shooting seemed fairly realistic.



The prostitution rests. - Kelly Bundy

This may come as a shock to you, but not everyone in this country runs around with a gun. New York had strict gun laws even then, and carrying a gun or other weapon could get you a lot of time in prison. Even people in organized crime don't necessarily walk around armed, so there's no reason to assume these guys would go to get a $200 debt with a piece, it wouldn't be worth it. In their mind that would be something that a stupid punk would do...(like Johnny Boy).

Back in those days, men liked a good brawl. A real fight. No one would pull out a piece because no one really wanted to kill anyone, these just wanted a good brawl. These days, people are just cowards and will pull heat at the first sign of trouble. Somehow along the years, "gangsters" started to see it as a masculine thing to pull out a piece, but back then that would be seen as cowardly and only punk ass would do it. Not to mention it was pretty damn hard to even come across a gun in NYC, even back then, unless you were a cop.