[Ichneumon]

After Hurricane Andrew, the same thing happened, and the result is described in an old post of mine I'll reproduce here, along with a commentary on the liberal media's cluelessness:

There was so little looting that even the notoriously anti-gun NPR ran a story on the situation. The reporter described, in awed tones, how homeowners were actually using their *own* guns to protect their *own* property and families and neighborhoods, and as a result the looting and lawlessness that occurred immediately after the hurricane had dropped to almost nil, despite the fact that the areas were still cut off from protection by area law enforcement. The overall tone of the story was that this was some kind of bizarre once-in-a-lifetime miracle, and that the concept had never occurred to them before.

[Paradox]

I was one of those armed home owners in Hurricane Andrew. My neighbor came over the next day and handed me a fully loaded 9mm and asked if I knew how to use it. As it was, I did, even though I did not own a handgun myself (I had learned to shoot my friends similar 9mm at a local gun range). So he loaned me his gun for a few months, and we posted such signs around our neighborhood. Most of the other neighbors were armed as well. We NEVER had a single incident of looting, and that was even with the several days we had NO contact with anyone from the outside, when looting could have been bad, before the national guard got there.

Local news reported that two would be looters got killed by locals, one had been shot in the face. When this word got out I think it stopped most others cold.