I got a question about the novel- The Outsiders?

Well i believe why he doesn't carry a weapon is because then if he got jumped my the socs and pulled the weapon out, he would encourage them to also pull out their weapons and have it turn into a full out fight, also cause the town all looks down on the greasers, having one walking around with a weapon could just give the police a reason to question them, and in Pony's case that would be bad, cause he and soda could be taken away from Darry.