Writer and comedian Tim Young says he’s completely pro-concealed-carry after he was robbed at gunpoint. He was robbed by two men in front of a crowd of bystanders.
Young, who hosts “No Things Considered” for the D.C. Examiner, in addition to his comedy tours, focuses on political and legal humor. But he is serious about self-defense in the aftermath of his encounter last week.
He was robbed last Wednesday in the capitol’s Wharf district by two men, one who grabbed him and the other who threatened to shoot him. The robbers made off with his cellphone.
“When they came up behind me, of course, I fought it,” Young told the Free Beacon. “Then they threatened me and I said ‘take the cellphone.’ Whatever. I’m not going to be a hero. As soon as they got it from me they ran.”
“When you’re initially grabbed, you want to fight back, but when you’re threatened and you have nothing to defend yourself with? You’re powerless,” he said. “Honestly, I’ve never felt like that before. All of the ‘be a hero’ stuff that you dream would happen where you could do roundhouse kicks and things goes right out the window as soon as you’re threatened with a weapon.”
Young described the street as well-lit and that everyone could tell what was happening. He said afterward most of the bystanders just walked off.
Regular #OffScriptOn9 guest @TimRunsHisMouth says he was held up by 2 men in DC’s new Wharf area Wednesday night. 1 of the men had a gun. pic.twitter.com/CkqDcpPRmK
— WUSA9 (@wusa9) January 20, 2018
“They just stood by and watched as I was yelling for help. ‘Help, I’m being robbed!’ They stood by and watched,” Young said to WUSA. An older couple walking their dogs offered him a phone to call the police with.
“They handed me the phone and I’m like, ‘okay, thanks guys.’ I mean, it’s like a weird moment,” Young said. “There were like two other guys that were standing there and the old couple were like ‘you saw that, right’ and they were like, ‘yeah’ and the guys just walked off like nothing happened.”
Before the robbery Young always assumed he was safe. He wasn’t a gun owner and didn’t feel like it was important, even when he was in rough neighborhoods. He said the robbery changed him.
“I took a lot for granted, but once you’re in a situation like that you turn around and go, ‘Wow, was I stupid.’ My career is based off of calling people stupid and laughing at them, and then I look at this and I think, ‘This is the time I was really stupid,’ and I don’t want other people to be as dumb as I was in this instance.”
See Also: Huge 2A Victory! D.C. Residents No Longer Need ‘Good Cause” to Carry
“I would’ve been able to defend myself. I know that.” he said. “I’m certain that they would have run had I been able to concealed carry and was armed. I am 100 percent certain that had I been concealed carrying I would have been able to protect myself.”
Recently the courts ruled that the Washington D.C. concealed-carry permitting process was unconstitutionally strict. Even with some of the constraints lifted, getting a permit and a handgun in the capitol is both difficult and expensive.
“Anyone can be robbed anywhere in town and you should, as a citizen, have the right to defend yourself, but it’s going to be damn near impossible to be able to obtain a weapon to do so,” Young said.
“It’s scary as shit, and I hope nobody else has to go through it,” he said. “That level of fear and that level of helplessness that you feel, it doesn’t compare to anything else I’ve felt in my life.”
Another incident where an armed citizen could have protected himself. Clearly police departments do not have the number of officers required to PREVENT crime.
What we really need is a new weapon system rather than re-inventing handguns over and over with slightly different grips, slides, trigger guards and mags. What we need is a wireless taser type weapon that instantly incapacitates these a$$holes long enough to get wire ties on them!
Then, instead of worrying about gun control, our politicians can pass laws to keep these out of the hands of criminals!
Apple and Samsung have cameras in their phones that can photograph the hair on a gnat’s a$$, so why not a wireless taser?
When their threat is a fire arm your going to use a taser? By the way they are working on a wireless taser shell, still in development.
Killing perps like that would be a great benefit to society, and the best solution if we didn’t have to stick around for the aftermath!
1- Will we face a prosecutor who is anti-gun in a liberal political environment?
2- Will we be sued by one of the perp’s family members?
3- Will any training we received be used against us if under stress we failed to follow it to the letter?
4- After being identified by news media, will we, or our family, be targets of fellow gang members?
We pay taxes for public services, including protection, and should not have to be put in the above situation because our politicians are more interested in making the rest of the world safe for Corporate expansion while not addressing the fact that we have neighborhoods where our citizens are being terrorized by violent gangs!
If it’s so hard to get a Concealed Weapons Permit in D.C., how did those criminals get one? What? Criminals don’t follow the laws? That’s why they’re criminals? Really? Huh, whoda thunk it?
Hahaha..that wimp couldn’t fight out of a wet paper bag
I wonder how many anti gun comments he has written and how many jokes he has told at gun owners expense?
Not all but a lot of people who have faced the business end of a gun convert. Too bad it takes that actual experience to change their minds instead of understanding who is responsible for your safety 24/7. Unfortunately, too many never have a second chance to change their position on firearms in the last seconds before they die.
As I’ve said for decades. “You show me a screaming Liberal and I’ll show you someone that hasn’t been mugged yet.”
Like my brother says: “Always fire a warning shot, to the back of their head”
My obvious takeaway for Mr. Young: don’t vote for Democrats.
Everyone seems to miss the main point of this story. The criminals perpetrated a crime in a PUBLIC setting knowing they would have no immediate effective response from the numerous bystanders as well as their victim. It is easy to armchair what should have been done and if any specific training and equipment might have helped. But truthfully, it is the simple lack of deterrence. An unarmed citizenry is an easy target for the criminal. Countries such as Mexico have no tolerance for citizen owned guns and thus the criminal elements are large and successful. The threat of well trained and armed citizens in the immediate vicinity is a great deterrence to the criminal even if the majority of the populace is not as capable.
You said it.
To a criminal a gun free zone is a target rich environment. I used to hope that something like this event might happen to Pelosi or Chuckles but then I remembered they have ARMED bodyguards.
I’m glad that this incident ended as well as it did and that it was the catalyst in changing his attitude about concealed carry but, being armed but ,totally oblivious to what is going on around you, isn’t going to help. I also believe that this indivivual needs to take some serious one on one force training before he’ll be prepared to handle defending himself in that situation. Being prepared to use that kind of force takes a mindset that I don’t believe he possesses. The gun is a tool. The will and ability to use it effectively is paramount. Otherwise, the perp is going to take from you and most likely it will end badly for you.
He would’ve gotten shot tryna pull a gun after someone else had the drop (has a gun aimed at him).
The only option he had is to shoot the one with the gun after he turned to flee. The other one he’d have to physically restrain unless he produced a weapon. Shooting someone without is considered a criminal offense, you have to be in fear of personal and others safety to justify shooting.
If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey, he is obligated to do so,, Thomas Jefferson..
Wow, amazing how one’s tune changes regarding concealed carry once the shoe’s on the other foot.
Wait a second. DC has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. The perps couldn’t have possibly have had a gun with those laws in place. Are you saying that gun control laws don’t work. Imagine that.
Simple, the perps probably didn’t speak English and couldn’t read the “No Firearms Allowed” sign. So, print multi-language sign and problem solved.
You, sir, are a veritable genius!! LOL
Yes your life and attitude changes after you are attacked! I was attacked and stabbed just one block from my apartment in “Safe” Santa Monica California. By sheer luck I had pepper spray in my jacket pocket that saved my life but I still needed a month to recover from the three stab wounds. The scum that attacked me did not ask for money they were trying to kill me first and then rob me which makes the point quite clear for the necessity of a concealed carry permit. Many of these gang bangers need to kill someone to be in a gang. While pepper spray is legal in California its nearly impossible to get a carry permit. Yet any gang banger can get one in a minute. The ultra liberal California madness which discriminates against the average honest citizen in favor of illegal immigrant gang bangers is disgusting and violates the US Constitution.
Mr Young I am glad you or no one else was injured or worse. The first problem residents have in living an working in the District of Columbia, is the lack of ability too protect themselves or others with a firearm. Having no legal recourse to protect
oneself leaves a person as vulnerable as a goat stacked out to bait a lion in some third world village.
People who have the legal ability too protect them selves, should become proactive by gaining knowledge and familiarity with firearms and their proper and responsible use. Nothing is more important than safe weapon handling skills and their application. Practice practice practice your skills with your firearm is required so that your part of the solution to street crime and not part of the problem.
How ever once a person gains competence with self protection they are far less likely to be that goat who is stacked out as
bait for the next criminal with a weapon and the intent on harm.
Welcome to our world.
The best conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged.
Well good thing he wasn’t hurt, but it was good that this experience has opened up the snowflakes eyes, but he still doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. Yes he may have been able to fend off an attack if he had seen it coming to begin with. I’m sure his situational awareness is not where it needs to be, but it’s probably better now than what it was before the attack. Here’s the other thing is that if someone carries concealed that doesn’t mean that you should pull your gun in every scenario. I don’t think a phone is worth a potential gun fight, the possibility of innocent people getting accidentally shot, the possible legal ramifications and the overwhelming guilt that you took a life. I know that there are all our couch Rambo’s out there thinking that the bad guys deserve it and shouldn’t be putting themselves in the situation to get shot to begin with, but that doesn’t take away from reality. The reality is, is that you will feel guilt, sleepless nights, loss of appetite, loss of sex drive. You’ll be “that guy” that killed another human being and people will treat you differently. It’s called the “Cain syndrome” as in Cain who killed Able in the Bible. Don’t get me wrong, if iv’e got someone entering my dwelling in the middle of the night and the only option is to shoot to stop the threat and that individual dies from their actions, then so be it and I will have to do my best to live with it. My point is, is that there are times to draw your weapon and defend yourself and their are times that you take the loss and move on. A lot of this can be prevented through training, color coded level of awareness and the “OODA Loop” that will all help you to detect and avoid a situation while not looking like a victim. The gentleman in the article has a lot to learn, now that his eyes are open to the reality of things.
Chris, Although I agree with some of which you say. You forget the main threat in his situation. These perps pulled a gun, in the laws eyes, in most States, that is justification to put them down like a rabid dogs they are. When we do not act strong enough these thugs are only empowered by the fact they got away with it. Take one down and the other will learn a very important message. They might get shot for strong arming a victim and taking what is not theirs You are correct in that every situation needs quick evaluation and not all require you pulling your gun. The instant these perps pulled the gun it became a you or them situation and if I could’ve I would have pulled mine and shot, no Rambo about it! You assume they wouldn’t shoot after brandishing a gun, my life experience says they have a gun it’s me or them!
I went back and re-read the article and I don’t know if the facts of the encounter were accurately reported, but what I read was that one perp held him and one “threatened” to shoot him. There is no mention of anybody pulling a gun. I think that would be a salient point to include, if it happened that way.
Now I am a concealed carry permit holder and carry everyday. I have trained, but have yet to perfect how to outdraw anyone while being held by another person. I think he did the right thing to give them what they wanted and let them ride off into the sunset.
Spot on Chris. This guy seems to be oblivious to the basic principles of situational awareness and mindset. He appears to think a gun is a talisman that will ward off evil doers. Whereas I applaud his decision to take responsibility for his own protection, my initial reaction is that this guy has no notion of the responsibility that comes with going armed. He needs serious training before he starts to carry.
NO, NO NO – F NO
So we just give robbers a free pass!!!
So everyone knows they can rob us without consequences!
I don’t think so. That is one of the roots of the anti-gun and crime
problem we have now. Just let them have anything they want so they
will not hurt you.
Why not wear a sign – “Come and get whatever we have” “We will not
defend ourselves” “Just take it – its yours”.
HELL NO
Defender,
That’s what’s great about this country. Your free to do what you want. Your also free to have to deal with the consequences of your actions. If I truly felt that my life was in danger or a loved ones then yes I would defend myself, but to have to possibly deal with all that comes afterward over a phone, yeah I don’t think so. I don’t think I would be okay after the fact, if I killed a couple of guys over a phone when I could’ve just let them have it and they went on their way, just as what happened in the story. It’s more about being situationaly aware and not looking like a victim to begin with.
Well stated. And true.
I love guys who warn CCW people to not use their firearm or to get puny cartridges to prevent over penetration. If a person is that fearful about using his firearm when in danger, then he shouldn’t carry.
Bill,
I too have a CCW and carry everyday. I have taken training courses and have attended Massad Ayoob’s Mag 40 class that is 40 hours in total and 26 of those hours are in class learning about the consequences of your actions, how to deal with the police in the aftermath and dealing with your defense attorney and most importantly the prosecuting attorney. I never said anything about puny cartridges. It’s not about being fearful it’s about is it worth it to potential kill someone over a phone, go through a costly & lengthy legal battle and to put my family through that. That potential verses a phone, I’ll give up the phone.
Right on Chris. There were 3 guys at least one with a gun. They would have been more likely to shoot than you. I doubt I would have pulled my weapon in that case.