If you’re unfortunate enough to reside or work in our nation’s capital and want to exercise your Second Amendment rights to their fullest extent possible, you’ll need to navigate the bureaucratic nightmare that is the District’s concealed carry permitting process. That means completing an application which included authorizing the city to access your mental health records, and certifying that you’ve had at least 16 hours of firearms training plus two hours of range training.
In all, you’ll spend somewhere between $500 and $1000 to do all of that. Then you’ll have the privilege of waiting between six and 12 months for the city to get back to you. In the mean time, you’ll have to continue to make your way in a city that, like so many other urban jurisdictions, is enjoying a double digit spike in violent crime including 485 carjackings in 2022, a 350% increase over 2018.
So it probably wasn’t much of a surprise that yet another driver was confronted with a gun and told to surrender his vehicle in the city’s Southeast district yesterday. The only real surprise was that the owner of the car was armed.
From shorenewsnetwork.com . . .
The incident unfolded at approximately 6:30 am at the 2300 block of R Street. The victim, positioned near his vehicle, was approached by two suspects traveling in a car. One of the suspects retrieved a gun and demanded the victim surrender his car. The victim drew his own firearm and discharged a shot at the suspect, 27-year-old Marcus Thompson, injuring him.
The accomplice took off while the victim tried to help the carjacker he’d just shot until police arrived.
The suspect was taken into custody and faces multiple charges, including armed carjacking. According to detectives, the victim possessed a valid concealed carry permit in the District, and his firearm was duly registered.
The carjackers had managed to select a rare prospective victim…one who’d actually cleared the intentionally onerous hurdles the city has erected to keep as few residents as possible from legally carrying a firearm in the District.
If the victim in this case had defended himself but had been carrying without the proper permitting, he’d have been charged and would stand a very good chance of spending far more time in jail than either of the two predators who tried to jack his ride.
The city has seen fit to ensure that criminals like Marcus Thompson and his fugitive partner in crime are kept mostly safe while they carjack random victims, ensuring that the average D.C. resident is legally unable to carry a firearm to protect themselves. The more District residents change those odds, as in this case, and are able to act in their own self-defense, the more predators like Thompson and his pal will think twice.