After sunset, the large balcony at Morton’s was filled with people, steaks and cigars. A few stories below, car headlights streamed along the streets of Washington, D.C. A half-dozen members of the national media were around my table at the end of the balcony. These were friends and acquaintances of my brother, Richard, who has spent his career as an author, pundit and media mogul—he has his own news service now—in and around Capitol Hill.
One pundit, who was then often on CNN, asked what I was working on. The U.S. Supreme Court had just decided D.C. v. Heller (2008), so I mentioned this decision and commented that, given the high-court’s invalidation of D.C.’s ban on handguns, maybe she was going to get the chance to carry a real tool for self-defense in the nation’s capital.
The table went quiet. Then, one by one, each told their stories of being mugged or carjacked in the better neighborhoods of D.C.
When it was my turn, I told my story about being confronted by a mugger in Midtown Manhattan. I was proud that this fiend in a blue hoodie did not get anything from me. I saw his knife come from a kangaroo pocket and I leapt between cars and went right across a busy 5th Ave., screaming profanity and shaking my fist at him as I went—maybe this wasn’t the smartest move, but that was my reaction.
I then commented that, like them, I could not get a pistol permit in New York City. First, I did not have the connections in the especially corrupt system of the time, but I also could not legally carry there because, though I did and do have a New York state permit, these are not valid in New York City. I was in the same predicament in D.C.—clearly, we need national reciprocity.
They all nodded along. Several commented that they’d like to visit the NRA to take a course and learn to shoot. I assured them I would be there to help—none of them, however, ever took me up on that.
Now, here we are in 2025, and President Donald Trump (R) has taken the push for freedom another step forward by signing an executive order titled, “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful.”
D.C. is unique in that it is a federal enclave and President Trump is, of course, the executive of the federal government. The executive order establishes a “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force.” This “Task Force shall coordinate to ensure effective Federal participation in the following tasks: … collaborating with appropriate local government entities to provide assistance to increase the speed and lower the cost of processing concealed carry license requests in the District of Columbia … .”
Since Wrenn v. District of Columbia (2017), a case in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit determined that the Second Amendment guarantees law-abiding citizens’ right to carry in D.C., many more people have gotten permits to carry. Despite the increase, D.C.’s application procedure is still very onerous and expensive.
President Trump is moving to change this. Indeed, this executive order coincided with an announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice that they are investigating the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to find out why it is taking so long for licensing officials to issue concealed-carry permits.
A new sheriff is in the nation’s capital, and his administration is on the move. I like to think that all of those members of the media who told me they’d been mugged are now carrying concealed; after all, those who take on this individual responsibility should be, it seems to me, less likely to advocate for taking this freedom away from other law-abiding citizens.
