In Canada, it is extremely rare to see or hear of anyone going out armed for "defense." I go out with just my clothes and my normal wallet, watch, necklace etc., I don't have to change anything. The only problem spots we have here are Edmonton and Toronto, where knife gangs have sprouted much like in Europe.
It seems these kinds of problems are related to population density, and as you get into a larger city, you get more and more problems. Well Canada has such a small pop, that most of our cities and towns don't have these kinds of problems. We do have a growing crystal-meth problem though in all cities and towns.
An interesting thing to note, is that 75% of all property crime in Oregon, a place very much like Canada, (I believe you guys call Oregon the Canada of California lol), anyway 75% of property crime (which is all crime except violent assault, rape etc.), is due to crystal-meth junkies trying to get enough cash for another fix. While this is not related to knife fighting or any of that shit, it is a scary statistic that Meth is taking over North America and destroying families and people, meanwhile the hot topic of the day, is Fox News or CNN talking some bullshit out of their ass about Iraq, or the latest religious schpeel.
I highly suggest checking out the web for accurate information, over what you get on American news channels - most informed Americans actually watch CBC from Canada, and CBC is good but not infallible, and it doesn't cover everything that Americans are interested in. Anyway, I watch PBS Frontline online, Nova and 60 minutes when I can download episodes.
Check this one out about meth though, it was a bit sobering:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/view/Private warriors and the one on Rumsfeld was really good too. Theres tons more and I'm still making my way through them.