Tim Young, the host of “No Things Considered” for the Washington Examiner, told the Washington Free Beacon that he was walking near the intersection of 6th and M streets in Washington, D.C. last Wednesday when he was suddenly approached from behind by two men who wore parkas and had their faces concealed. One of the men grabbed him, while the other drew a gun and said he would shoot him if he didn’t fork over his phone.
“When they came up behind me, of course, I fought it,” Young said. “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.”
Young said there were around half a dozen people who witnessed the incident.
“They just stood by and watched as I was yelling for help. ‘Help, I’m being robbed!’ They stood by and watched,” Young told WUSA9.
The only ones who offered any assistance were an elderly couple out walking their dogs who dialed 911 and gave Young their cell phone so he could talk to the police.
Young told the Free Beacon he felt “powerless” during the robbery.
“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.”
“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,” Young told WUSA9.
Not wanting to feel powerless and helpless again, Young—who has never owned a gun before—has changed his stance on guns and decided to begin the lengthy and arduous process of obtaining a concealed carry permit in Washington, D.C., which actually just got a little bit easier after a federal appeals court recently upheld an earlier decision striking down the “good reason” D.C. concealed carry permit requirement as unconstitutional.
“I would’ve been able to defend myself. I know that.” he said when asked about getting a CCW. “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.”
Young also had some pointed words for those who are opposed to concealed carry.
“I think my big point to a lot of people is, people who are anti-Second Amendment and anti-concealed carry probably have never been held up with a gun or had their life threatened. 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,” Young said.
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