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Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Opinion columnist Published 4:00 a.m. ET Oct. 8, 2020

Riots over George Floyd predictably resulted in billions in property damage, but it might be a surprise that they have strengthened the argument for gun rights.

This yearsriots, sparked by the death of George Floyd and continued in the names of several others, have destroyed billions of dollars in property, cost numerous people their livesand businesses and jobs,and promoted what will probably be a decade or more of de-urbanization.But whatever else happens, they will have accomplished an important social change.Thanks to these riots, the case for the Second Amendment and the personal right to own weapons is growing steadily stronger, as is the legal case for private gun ownership.

Thats the thesis of a new paper by George Mason University law professor David E. Bernstein, who also serves as the director of GMUs Liberty and Law Center.The Right to Armed Self Defense in the Light of Law Enforcement Abdication, notes that the experience of this years riots undercuts the classic argument against an individual right to arms.While gun-control proponents have for decades argued that individual gun ownership is unnecessary in the modern era, where we have police forces to control crime, that hasnt worked out very well this year for people in numerous urban centers around America.

Bernstein offers an extensive review of happenings in cities ranging from Seattle to Louisville, Portland to Chicago and New York and Raleigh, and many other cities. In case after case, police were told to stand down, in order to avoid provoking violence.And in each case, the result was more violence, more property destruction, and more damage to businesses and jobs, while political leaders stood by.

In Seattle, city officials not only allowed the creation of a police-free zone, the city actually helped the creators by supplying things like traffic barriers and portable toilets. How did that work out?

Open-carry activist on Sept. 17, 2020, in Lansing, Michigan.(Photo: Nicole Hester/Ann Arbor News via AP)

It was a debacle, despite Mayor Jenny Durkans initially comparing it to a block party.When it was finally ended, Bernstein notes, Durkan admitted that the rioting produced a 525% increase in person-related crime, including rape, robbery, assaultand gang-related activity.

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Likewise, in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and prosecutor Kim Foxx established an early policy of toleratingand even implicitly encouragingstreet violence through their lackadaisical response. Bernstein notes, EvenotherChicagoofficials whogenerallysupportcriminaljustice reformhavecriticizedFoxxsreluctancetopursuefelonychargesagainst thosearrested forriotingor looting.

Meanwhile, On a particularly violent weekend in early June, Lightfoot refused to deploy the National Guard beyond Chicagoscentralbusinessdistrict,drawingcondemnationsfromofficials representing districts on the south and west side of the city, which were left unprotected during Chicagos deadliest weekend in sixty years.Over that weekend, twenty-four people werekilled andatleast sixty-one injured by gunviolence,and thecitys911dispatchersreceived65,000callsina single day 50,000 more than normal. As chaos unfolded, one Democratic city councilwoman told the mayor on the phone, My ward is a shit show .... [Rioters] are shooting at the police. I have never seen the likes of this. Im scared.

Bernstein recounts, with heavy documentation, numerous cases along these lines from numerous cities around the nation. In addition, he notes other cities like Atlanta and Los Angeles, where police called in sick to protest the actions of city leaders, leaving citizens unprotected.

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Even in normal times, gun owners joke thatwhen seconds count, the police are only minutes away.But, sometimes, theyre not coming at all.Sometimes theyre not even allowed to show up. (And, historically, political leaders have sometimes used the denial of police protection to opponents as a means of opening those opponents up to violent attacks.)

Bernstein notes that this is something that courts should take into account when Second Amendment cases are argued. But its also something that the rest of us should keep in mind.In 2020, the police will protect you seemsparticularly hollow.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor and the author of"The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself,"is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.

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Riots of 2020 have given the Second Amendment a boost - USA TODAY