Something to consider.
Has anybody noticed that many pro-gun activists who are also social conservatives believe in the concept of popular sovereignty on every issue, including those bearing a constitutional argument like school prayer, same-sex marriage and censorship of the arts, until popular support for common sense gun laws are brought up?
Also, aside from the well regulated militia qualifier, the second amendment is different from the first amendment in that the first amendment speaks of a freedom, whereas the second amendment speaks of a right. Even if you were to look past that "well regulated militia" part, the second amendment says you have the right to bear arms, not the right to bear any arm you like. After all, an anti-air craft weapon is clearly an arm, and yet nobody is going to assume that the government, federal or state, is going to allow somebody to have an item that can be used to attack a passenger plane, or a military one, out of the sky from their backyard. So we are already setting a precedent that the state can put a limit on what arms a person can have, bearing a limit that the second amendment, even if it was an amendment aimed at protecting individual, non-militia gun ownership, doesn't spell out. At least not in language that a so-called strict constructionist could find.
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