In one article about the Rittenhouse trial the prosecution called him a “chaos tourist”. What a great term!
Personally I think if there has been rioting in a nearby town the last thing I am going to do is strap on some guns and visit to "check it out’. Maybe if I’m in my friend’s Ferret.
International travel – primarily to ‘emerging nations --’ used to be my thing.
And many of those countries were famous for frequent protests, marches, and uprisings, often with a tendency toward violence on behalf of either the masses or a relatively authoritarian government.
It was conventional wisdom, and always my practice, to avoid those things like the plague (read: get out of town).
No matter how fascinating they may have been to me, there was effectively zero upside and virtually unlimited downside.
But then again, I don’t fancy myself some CosPlay Rambo or faux paramedic 
I take it you are not a journalist or similar. They absolutely do go to where there they hear there has been rioting or war, they do go interview terrorists and warlords as well as mainstream politicians, and they do occasionally get violently killed (Tim Hetherington survived Afghanistan but bought the farm due to a mortar shell in Libya, for example).
I’m guessing that chaos tourism is quite a bit different from being a combat journalist or a medical professional with a group like Doctors without Borders. The former is there essentially for the thrill while the latter have legitimate reasons for being there.
I would assume that a chaos tourist who carries a big, conspicuous gun is doing so for the hope that they’ll get to use it. The bigger guns tend to be less practical for good self-defense, and it’s most often better if you don’t stick out in any way in those types of scenarios. It’s not going to scare angry people away.
Why is a big gun less practical? I am much more likely to be able to hit something with a rifle than a pistol.
Endless forum debates center around that basic question.
I think this is a good summary … if such a thing is metaphysically possible:
Sure, if you have the time and space. But in close encounters, trying to get a long gun maneuvered and aimed at someone, without them being able to bat the barrel away, is going to be harder. It’s why some gun laws exclude long guns (because it carves out exceptions for guns that are a lot more likely to be used for hunting than crowd control at a protest).
Also, keep in mind, if I’m attacking you and you pull out a rifle, once I’m closer to you than the length of the barrel, there’s not a whole lot you can do with it. Imagine trying to shoot someone with an AR-15, strapped around your neck, while the person is wrestling you to the ground.
Along slightly similar lines, if you keep a baseball bat under your bed in case someone breaks in, you need to remember that if you encounter them in a hallway, to use ‘stabbing’ motions since you can’t swing it.
But then, what good is the barbed wire I’ve wrapped around it?
It’ll keep them from trying to grab it while you use the ‘stabbing motions’ to corral them back into the living room where you have room to swing.
Of course! Thanks.
If you like the concept of Chaos tourism, Check out P. J. O’Rourke’s Holidays in Hell. Decades old, but the times were chaotic then too.