I was in the service during much of the second half of the sixties when a lot of this stuff went on. Thinking back though, the riots in Detroit are the worst in my memory. If I remember correctly the 101st Airborne, or maybe the 82nd, was set up on the outskirts of the city, and they may have even gone in. Further, I think there were armored personal carries using their 50s on the streets of Detroit at one point.
A friend of mine was living near Watts when it blew in '65. He said white people, of which he was one, were breaking into gun shops to get a weapon to protect themselves.
BSB