A friend of mine in DC did protected his liquor store along the 9th Street corridor by sitting behind the counter all weekend after the MLK assassination with his rifle aimed at the front door. No one came near it.
To EDINVA:
Your friend was lucky. Others were killed by mobs. In fact, I was possibly the first person to tell the police (actually White House Protective Service officer) that a mob was forming at 14th & R, carrying burning paper.
No police car was seen on 14th Street till I found one at the White House entrance.
Two white truck drivers were later killed at 14th & U, pulled from their cabs and stabbed to death at the same spot I had driven thru two days earlier.
My pipe wrench under my car seat wouldn’t have saved me if I were attacked. A gun would have. Lesson learned but still unarmed in DC.