Washington DC comedian Tim Young had strong feelings against the second amendment, that is until he was robbed in a public place in plain view of a crowd of people by two armed attackers.
He was on his way to perform at a DC hotspot known as The Wharf when two men, one of which banished a gun, robbed him. The comedian called out for help from the large crowd of people who were close enough to witness the crime and hear Tim’s pleas for help.
“That level of fear and that level of helplessness that you feel,” Young told reporters, “it doesn’t compare to anything else I’ve felt in my life. There’s no man card involved. I was defenseless.”
Young explained that he had always assumed the police and the presence of other people would be enough to keep him safe from events like this. Of course, most of us understand that is not the case.
It is especially not the case that the presence of others protects a crime victim from attack or robbery when the criminals are armed and the law abiding citizens are not. There is no blame to be had for those who, unarmed, saw a gun-wielding man committing a crime- and did not help. In a situation like that, the best a person can do is to get out of the criminal’s line of sight and call the police.
But that brings us to Young’s second problematic assumption, the assumption that the police offer meaningful protection from crime. The fact that we have armed law enforcement and a system of punishments for those who commit crime is a deterrent. But it is not a protection.
The police cannot arrive on scene fast enough to prevent a robbery or some other act of violence. The average police response time nationwide is about five minutes. The average gun battle lasts less than thirty seconds. That means the only one who can protect a person from crime is the person himself.
Young talks about the fear and the helplessness he felt as he stood defenseless, completely at the mercy of his robbers, while the crowd looked on. “They just stood by and watched as I was yelling for help. ‘Help, I’m being robbed!’ They stood by and watched.”
People who believe they are safe from this kind of attack lack a visceral understanding of what being threatened at gunpoint really means. It means you are being given the choice to obey the criminal and hand over your personal belongings, or face the risk of immediate death or grievous injury.
For the average person, whose resources are modest- handing over personal belongings is a much more serious matter than it would be for an affluent person. For most Americans, losing a couple hundred dollars, a jacket, wallet, and/or a cell phone could cause them to miss a rent or mortgage payment or lose their job.
Once a staunch anti-gun advocate, Young now understands what the right to self-defense means. It means having the freedom to protect yourself from criminals using prevalent weapon technology. It is simply the right to have a chance in a fight with an armed assailant.
Young said, “I think a lot of those people who are opposed to having a concealed carry permit and being able to own a weapon have never had one pointed directly at them when they have nothing on them.”
When interviewers asked him what he would have done if he had been armed, he said he would have used it to defend himself.
But like many other major American cities, Washington DC makes it extremely hard for people to carry guns legally. John Stossel recently ran a piece about the campaign of arbitrary imprisonment the City of New York wages against people who carry guns legally and follow all of the local regulations.
Stossel himself tried to obtain a concealed carry permit. The process took months, cost him thousands of dollars, and he was still turned down even though he has no criminal record.
It’s difficult to pretend that anti-gun lawmakers do not realize their policies actually hurt Americans and empower criminals. They claim to believe guns themselves are the cause of violence. And the areas where the strictest gun laws exist are also the highest crime areas.
In Stossel’s report, an Iraq veteran living in New York said, “They want you to know that you aren’t important enough to be allowed to carry a gun to protect your family. It’s about status, and their superiority.”
~ American Gun News
Time for SCOTUS to uphold the Second Amendment for ALL Americans regardless of which state they reside in. We are supposed to be the UNITED States of America, and our Bill of Rights “are not to be infringed” by ANY state’s government!
The Lord helps them who help themselves
In the ’70’s I worked at a gun shop on Long Island, NY. My permit allowed me to carry anywhere in the state but NYC which is the one place a person really needs to carry. I broke the law every time I went into the city as I was not leaving my weapon at home.
Live & learn, hopefully not the hard way…Gun Control=hitting where You aim, double tap center mass !
I mean everyone that owns a home has a fire extinguisher on hand in case of a fire….and it is also loaded & ready!!!!
>Common Sense NOT political correct<
I have carried concealed since year 2000, and luckily I have never had the use it for self defense. But you know the old saying “it is better to have your weapon with you and never need it, than to need it and not have it”. Also I have another bit of advice for you, carry legal insurance, I have over a million dollar policy, that cost me a little less than $500 a year, and it’s just like life insurance, I hope I never have to use it, but if I do need it, I will have it. It covers everything thing including my bail money, if I ever am in a self defense shooting, I first call the police and then while waiting for the police to arrive I call the number on the card provided, and an attorney will meet me at the police station. In some instances I may have to spend one night in jail (depending on the circumstances, because the judge may not set the bail until the next morning), but in any case the insurance covers the bail, and everything up to $1,100,000, and I know legal expenses can get expensive. And I know $500 a year is a lot of money, but if you can’t afford it don’t carry.
Article seems alright. Check your spelling: the assailant did not “banish” a gun. The assailant BRANDISHED a gun
So much for spell check.
Thank you, let’s hear it for the spelling police.
Article is alright. However you need to double check your spell check. The assailant did not ‘banish’ the gun, the assailant ‘brandished’ a gun.
No description of the perps, I’ll start….Black, young,….
Also, his pleas for help went out to, most likely a predominately negro crowd, no help there for whitey.
If this sounds racist, so be it….If anyone attempts to rob me, there will be a gun fight, and it won’t last thirty seconds…..
As my old pappy use to say, son people have to learn the hard way! This as I got older found out he’s absolutely right!
Nothing changes a Liberals point of view like a dose of reality.
Thanks to the libturds the world is going in the wrong direction. It is going that way because the libturds are not alive from the neck up and feel IF something does not happen to me personally, it is not happening. They haven’t got the common sense that GOD issued to them. They seem to have heard someone say everyone who needs a brain stand in this line and if you need a train get in that line. They got things messed up and missed them both.
The rest of the gun banner need Youngs lessen
“Then said (Jesus) unto them, ‘But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his (money): and he that hath no sword let him sell his garment, and buy one” (Luke 22:36).
I have a carry permit and have been carrying for about 8 years. Thank God I haven’t had to use it, but I joined USCCA. I don’t feel fully dressed until I have my gun in the holster!! This isn’t the same America I was born in by any means.
Jeez, a liberal goof ball changing his mind when HIS ox is now getting gored. As a conservative that is my main argument against these holier than thou turds. Geez, I bet if you were robbed, you might EVEN support the police. One more. Ask Pelosi and Schumer who their nearest foreign or black neighbor is? I bet there are none for a 100 miles!!!!! Hypocrites!!!!!
I live in California, and I work at a State prison. I see the kind of criminals that exist. Believe me, you HAVE to be on guard every minute! On the street it may be even worse because inside the prison we have correction officers around us. If more good citizens were armed there would be less crime. As someone once wrote, “It’s easy for evil to triumph over good. All that is needed is for the good people of the world to do nothing.”
“Better to be convicted by twelve than carried by six” is a saying I learned from a close friend, a Chicago cop, who had 32 years experience with such mayhem.
There are areas of the city that even the cops won’t go, because the “citizens” don’t want them and are as problematic as the perps. And it doesn’t matter what color the cops are – these areas are dens of crime because the residents don’t want to help clean it up one bit.
The guy that robbed Mr. Young likely knew that he wasn’t going to encounter any resistance, because he was in an area run by a city administration largely anti-gun. He knew the response time of the cops, and knew he’d have a low-risk “enterprise” in armed robbery.
Perhaps Mr. Young should use his “star power”, if any, to encourage not only the city government to patrol more often, or he’d best go with others of his friends. Don’t count on the city; there is money and voters in those downtrodden people, and like Chicago, the city is so used to “running the show” that the people have no input any more.
Move away from such a pit.
Note to self, get pistol, become proficient, get CC permit, carry all the time. This is what all Honest Americans should do.
Not all crimes are committed by those of the black communities!. By thr way I’m bkack and conservative all thr way. So might want to consider that there are allot more of us out here than you know
I ment I’m “Black “