Today marks a great moment in American history. This is a landmark decision. It is a vindication for the great majority of American citizens who have always believed the Second Amendment was an individual right and freedom worth defending.

The Supreme Court said what a majority of the American public believes. The people who wrote the Second Amendment said it was an individual right, and the Court has now confirmed what our founding fathers wrote and intended. The Second Amendment -- as every citizen’s constitutional right -- is now a real part of American Constitutional law.

But, Supreme Court decisions have to lead to actual consequences or the whole premise of American constitutional authority collapses. Individual freedom must mean you can actually experience it. An incorporated freedom has to be a real freedom.

The intent of the founding fathers -- and the Supreme Court -- was to provide access. Words must have meaning.

The Supreme Court has now said the Second Amendment is an individual freedom for all. And that must have meaning. This decision must provide relief to law-abiding citizens who are deprived of their Second Amendment rights.

We are practical guys. We don’t want to win on philosophy and lose on freedom. The end question is, can law-abiding men and women go out and buy and own a firearm? Today the Supreme Court said yes – anywhere they live!

This decision cannot lead to different measures of freedom, depending on what part of the country you live in. City by city, person by person, this decision must be more than a philosophical victory. An individual right is no right at all if individuals can’t access it. Proof of Heller and McDonald will be law abiding citizens, one by one, purchasing and owning firearms.

The NRA will work to ensure this constitutional victory is not transformed into a practical defeat by activist judges, defiant city councils, or cynical politicians who seek to pervert, reverse, or nullify the Supreme Court’s McDonald decision through Byzantine labyrinths of restrictions and regulations that render the Second Amendment inaccessible, unaffordable, or otherwise impossible to experience in a practical, reasonable way.

What good is a right without the gun? What good is the right if you can’t buy one? Or keep one in your home? Or protect your family with one?

Here’s a piece of paper – protect yourself. That’s no right at all!

Victory is when law abiding men and women can get up, go out, and buy and own a firearm. This is a monumental day. But NRA will not rest until every law-abiding American citizen is able to exercise the individual right to buy and own a firearm for self defense or any other lawful purpose.

Fairfax, Va. - The National Rifle Association announced its support for critical legislation being introduced in Congress today by Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), and Representatives Travis Childers (D-Miss.) and Mark Souder (R-Ind.). The Second Amendment Enforcement Act will restore Second Amendment rights to residents of the District of Columbia. This legislation is necessary because the D.C. Council continues to circumvent the Supreme Court’s historic 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller.

Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said, “It’s a shame that this legislation is even necessary to restore rights that citizens of the District should already have the freedom to exercise. We are grateful that a bipartisan group of members of Congress led by Senators McCain and Tester, and Congressmen Childers and Souder, have taken this significant step to require the D.C. Council to abide by the Heller decision and allow law-abiding citizens in D.C. to protect themselves and their loved ones.”

The Second Amendment Enforcement Act seeks to secure for District residents the rights reinforced by the Supreme Court’s decision in Heller. The legislation would repeal D.C.'s ban on many common semi-automatic firearms, restore the right of self-defense in the home, authorize purchases of firearms and ammunition by D.C. residents, repeal the District's burdensome gun registration requirement and ensure that firearms may be transported and carried for legitimate purposes.

“Since the Heller ruling, the D.C. Council has willfully disregarded the intentions of our nation’s highest court,” Cox continued. “NRA remains committed to restoring the right to self-defense for law-abiding citizens in Washington, D.C. by whatever legal or legislative means necessary.”

The legislation introduced today is similar to the Ensign Amendment adopted by the Senate in 2009, and to the Childers Amendment that passed the House in 2008. Both measures passed their respective chambers with broad bi-partisan majorities.