Dave Kopp, the longtime lobbyist and founding president of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), a Second Amendment organization in Arizona, passed away at age 56.
Kopp fought cancer for 12 years but succumbed to the illness Wednesday. Several people in the Arizona gun industry told The Arizona Sun Times Kopp was responsible for transforming Arizona into the top-ranked state for Second Amendment-friendly laws.
Alan Gottlieb, who started the Second Amendment Foundation – which works closely with AzCDL – told The Sun Times, “Dave was a key leader in the gun rights movement. His leadership inspired activists all across the country. Grassroots activities that he spearheaded in Arizona were copied by groups from coast to coast. His accomplishments in his home state did not stop at the Arizona border.” The Second Amendment Foundation gave Kopp its Defender of Liberty award in 2019.
Charles Heller, the only original AzCDL founding member remaining in leadership and the group’s spokesperson, told The Sun Times that Kopp was a brilliant lobbyist who once even convinced Arizona’s Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema to support an AzCDL bill – back when Sinema was in the Arizona Legislature and leaned much farther to the Left.
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times
