A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Saturday overturned Washington D.C.'s ban on residents carrying handguns outside their home, stating it was unconstitutional, the Associated Press reported. In a landmark decision for gun-right activists, the verdict leaves no gray area in gun-carrying rights.

Judge Frederick Scullin Jr. wrote in his ruling in Palmer v. District of Columbia that the right to bear arms extends outside the home, therefore gun-control laws in the nation's capital are "unconstitutional." "There is no longer any basis on which this Court can conclude that the District of Columbia's total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home is constitutional under any level of scrutiny," Scullin said in an opinion. "Therefore, the Court finds that the District of Columbia's complete ban on the carrying of handguns in public is unconstitutional," he added in his 19-page ruling.

In 2008, the Supreme Court struck down D.C.'s all-out ban on handguns on the basis that it violated the right to bear arms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.  An appeals court in 2011 then required handguns to be registered.

"We won," Alan Gura, the lead attorney for the Second Amendment Foundation, told Fox News in a phone interview.  "I'm very pleased with the decision that the city can't forbid the exercise of a fundamental constitutional right." Although he expects the District to appeal this decision, he added, "We'll be happy to keep the fight going."

The case, which has been dragged in the courts for five years, has twice been requested by Gura to force Judge Scullin to issue a decision. With the city government and Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier acting as defendants, the case has been argued twice after being filed by five plaintiffs in 2009, most recently in Oct. 2012.

George Lyon, a D.C. resident and registered gun owner is one of the plaintiffs in Palmer. "I am gratified that after a long wait our right to protect ourselves and our families has been vindicated," Lyon, a lawyer, said Saturday, urging Mayor Vincent Gray, a Democrat, and the Democrat-controlled City Council to "swiftly enact a concealed carry law that protects the rights of law abiding citizens to protect themselves."

Gray and D.C. City Council Chairman Phil Mendelson did not respond immediately for a request for comment, according to Fox News.