"I did not say anything witty or clever.... In the movies, they say something very clever. I just said, 'If you come closer, I will kill you.' Very blunt. And they stopped."
Tom G. Palmer, a D.C. gay man who is suing the city for the right to carry firearms in public, recounting to the Washington Post the incident when he says carrying a gun saved his life. In 1982, Palmer and a colleague were pursued by young men who "perceived [us] as a couple of faggots" and threatened to kill the two men -- Palmer pulled out his gun, which he did not fire. "It evened up the odds from a gang of young men who thought it would be really fun to beat to death two guys walking down the street," Palmer says. Palmer, a fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute in the District, is among a number of plaintiffs in the lawsuit. (Washington Post)
