In what is being billed as the most important firearms ruling in a generation, the US supreme court begins hearing a case tomorrow that will decide whether Americans have a personal right to own guns.

Robert Levy, below, is so committed to defeating the strongest gun ban in America that he used his personal fortune to take the case all the way to the supreme court. But he does not even own a gun.

A senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington research foundation, Levy says his challenge is not about weapons or about the laws banning them, but about respect for the US constitution.

The wealthy libertarian, who graduated from law school in his 50s after making money from stock market analysis, began his quest to test the strength of gun rights with a simple recruitment drive: he needed people with compelling personal reasons for owning a gun, who would sue the city of Washington.