Guns: Urban Operations

Anarchy is often used as a synonym for chaos, but in reality, I think it only degenerates into such when you have a large crowd of people in one place who are in the mood to fight. Unfortunately, that condition occurred in the L.A. riots of 1992, when for several days the city of Los Angeles was wracked by looting and lawlessness. I was reminded of that fateful time since the catalyst for the riots, Rodney King, was in the news recently.

As the violence spread, Korean-American shopkeepers took to the streets to protect their stores from looters. Aside from Hurricane Katrina, this is the best-televised instance of open gun battles on American soil that I'm aware of:

The breakdown of law and order is a convenient excuse for thugs and criminals to start taking advantage of people - notice that most of the actual crime is done by a small group of people, while others just stand by watching, not aiding but not restraining them. In these situations, the game plan for survival, I think, should be "get the heck outta Dodge." A firearm, as the Koreatown video shows, is small comfort when confronting a mob of attackers. But it might be able to help get you out safely.