[Gun store owner David] Liu lived through the 1992 Los Angeles riots, triggered by the acquittal of police officers charged in the brutal beating of Rodney King.

As parts of the city burned, Asian-American communities such as the one in Koreatown had to fend for themselves. For the first three days of looting, the police did not come to Koreatown and residents turned away looters with guns and baseball bats. When the week-long riots were over, about half the US$1 billion in damage had been sustained by Korean-American businesses.

“All these people are out of work, and what are people running out of food and money going to do? It’s going to be scary,” he says.

Gun control advocacy groups might argue more widespread gun ownership will not make the country safer and that, if anything, firearms in the home lead to more murders, suicides and accidental shootings. Liu does not agree.

The 54-year-old taught his three daughters, aged 20 to 28, to shoot “as soon as they were ready to learn”, and urges them to sleep with a loaded gun close to hand.