I used to live in LA before moving back to the East Coast. We watched the "Rodney King" LA riots on TV. We watched the cops running away rather than confronting the rioters. My friends in LA told me that riots had gotten to within a few blocks of where I had lived. My wife bought me my first firearm shortly thereafter.
Any middle-class resident of LA (or anyplace else in the US) who doesn't own firearms, is a fool