"This gives us a tremendous foundation for the protection of our rights and if we stay politically active, an opportunity to win many, many more victories,” said Dave Kopel, attorney with the Independence Institute.
Kopel spoke on West Virginia Outdoors June 28th about the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that overturned the Washington D-C ban on handguns. Kopel was one of the four attorneys who argued against the ban before the high court.
"This is not a decision that says you can’t have any gun control at all," explained Kopel. "Among the many types of gun control that are still okay are laws against felons and the mentally ill from having guns."
The ruling came as a breath of fresh air for Second Amendment advocates who’ve been hunkering down with every mention of guns out of Washington for the past three decades. However, Kopel says it’s been because of the diligence of the nation’s gun owners and sportsmen that the ruling was possible.
"It’s because they’ve been hunkering down and keeping up the fight that victory is possible today," said Kopel. "If gun owners had given up and you’d had this ‘handgun ban virus’ that exists in Washington DC and Chicago–if that had spread nationwide so we had gun bans in a lot of cities and states, I don’t think the Supreme Court would have had the nerve to strike that down."
Kopel cautions that although the ruling from the high court is solid and lasting, the fight is far from over. He says gun opponents aren’t sitting back and taking the ruling likely. He says their next step will be to take their fight to the United Nations, where they’ll likely find a friendlier venue to eliminate guns worldwide.
"Backed by George Soros, they want a ban on all handguns and a ban on any rifle that can shoot more than 100-meters and a prohibition on using any firearm for self defense,” explained Kopel. "And in fact, a United Nation’s commission has already declared it’s a human rights violation if your country allows you to use a gun in self defense of a non-lethal crime, such as arson or rape."