How A Libertarian Who's Never Owned A Gun Brought The Decisive Case On The Second Amendment

CBS News reports:

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, said, "The NRA views this as the opening salvo, as a step-by-step process of bringing relief to citizens all over the country that have been denied access to that freedom.

"The Second Amendment as an individual right now becomes an important part of the American constitutional law, and that's monumental," he said.

How did it happen? Why this particular case? Why now? It took exactly the right cast of characters, perfect timing, and the determination of a lawyer named Robert Levy who knew just how to play the game.

"The financing for this came out of my pocket," he told Teichner.

Levy's story is remarkable: He got rich in finance, but cashed out and went to law school at the age of 50. (He's now 66.) This is the only lawsuit he's ever litigated.

He's never even owned a gun.

"The gun part of it is, I don't know that I'd say it was incidental, but certainly my primary interest was in vindicating the Constitution and the meaning of the Second Amendment."

Levy is a libertarian, a senior fellow at libertarianism's philosophical brain trust, the Cato Institute in Washington.

Libertarianism isn't dead yet in America.