Tim Young was heading to one of D.C.’s newest hotspots—The Wharf—when his life changed.
He was walking down a well-lit section of M Street at about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday when two men approached him—one of them had a gun.
“Terrified. You know, when I talk to people about this… you’re scared. There’s no man card involved. I was defenseless,” explained Young, who’s a political comedian and host of ‘No Things Considered’ at the D.C. Examiner. The men ran off with his cell phone.
Young said six to seven people witnessed the attack, but no one tried to help him while it was going on. Two people called 911 after it was over and the “rest of the folks walked off.”
“They just stood by and watched as I was yelling for help. ‘Help, I’m being robbed!’ They stood by and watched,” recalled Young.
The attack changed his thoughts on guns.
Young, who grew up in Southwest Baltimore, said he’s been in some bad places in his life and nothing happened to him then. He assumed things would continue to go that way.
Now, he said he absolutely plans to apply for a concealed carry permit in D.C., but it won’t be easy. The District is one of the toughest places in the country to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
“When you’re in an instance where there’s a gun is pointed at you and your life is being threatened for your property and no one’s going to help—and now I know that no one’s going to help—I want to feel more secure. I want to feel safe, and I have something to defend myself with,” he said.
When asked how the situation would have went differently if he had a gun, Young told Bruce Johnson on ‘Off Script’ that he probably would have pulled it out to defend himself.
He addressed people who are against conceal carry permits by saying they’ve probably never been in his position.
“I think a lot of those people who are opposed to having a conceal carry permit and being able to own a weapon have never had one pointed directly at them when they have nothing on them,” Young said.
He plans to get trained and go through all the requirements necessary so he can carry a gun outside his home.
“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.”
