While the District of Columbia doesn’t make it easy to obtain a concealed carry license there are still some folks who’ve managed to navigate the maze of red tape D.C. officials have placed in their way, and two would-be carjackers managed to stumble on to one of them while looking for an easy mark this week.

Authorities say the two armed men approached their intended victim around 6:30 Monday morning in southeast D.C., only to discover that he was ready and able to fight back.

Marcus Thompson, 27, of southeast D.C. was arrested and charged with armed carjacking, carrying a pistol without a license, possession of unregistered ammunition and possession of a large capacity of ammunition feeding device.

The incident occurred in southeast D.C. in the 2300 block of R Street around 6:30 a.m. The suspects were in a vehicle when they approached the victim who was near his car. Thompson took out a gun and demanded the victim’s car. The victim then took out his own gun and shot Thompson.

The other suspect drove away while the victim rendered aid to Thompson until police arrived. Thompson was taken to a hospital nearby for treatment.

According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the armed citizen possessed a valid D.C. carry permit, and unlike Thompson, had fully complied with all of the District’s byzantine gun laws, including registering his pistol. Now the big question is whether or not D.C. prosecutors will actually go after Thompson or drop charges, as is happening on a disturbingly regular basis.

Last year, federal prosecutors in the District’s U.S. attorney’s office chose not to prosecute 67 percent of those arrested bypolice officers in cases that would have beentried in D.C. Superior Court.

That figure,first reported earlier this month on the substack DC Crime Facts, nearly doubledfrom 2015, when prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office declined to prosecute 35 percent of such cases.

… In an interview, Matthew M. Graves, the Biden-appointed U.S. attorney for the District, said his office was continuing to prosecute the vast majority of violent felonies. He said prosecutors were declining less serious cases for myriad reasons,including that the city’s crime lab remained unaccredited and police body-camera footage was subjecting arrests to more scrutiny.

Robert J. Contee III, the District’s police chief, said his officers were not to blame.

“I can promise you, it’s not MPD holding the bag on this,” Contee said. “That’s B.S.”

There’s been a lot of finger-pointing between police and prosecutors when it comes to the lack of charges, but as I’ll discuss in more detail in an upcoming post even when cases do end up in court defendants are often released with few if any consequences. You’d like to think that wouldn’t be the case here given the amount of evidence against Thompson, but stranger things happen in D.C. courtrooms on a regular basis.

Kudos to the armed citizen who not only defended his own life but worked to save the life of his attacker, and shame on those D.C. officials who have made it so difficult for other responsible gun owners to obtain a carry license of their own. The District’s restrictive gun laws aren’t stopping violent offenders, including a growing number of juveniles responsible for some serious crimes, but they continue to have a chilling effect on those good folks in bad neighborhoods who have a pressing need to exercise their right to bear arms in self-defense.