Administration defends new gun law - $1,000 excise tax on pistols (CNMI - Mariana Islands)

[benEzra]

8. True, just as the 1stA doesn't cover all speech everywhere.

However, Heller did specifically state that the 2ndA protects guns that are commonly owned for lawful purposes, specifically mentioning handguns as the exemplar. Less-misused, equally common guns (like Title 1 rifles and shotguns) would logically fall under that protection as well, though it was D.C.'s handgun ban that was the occasion for Heller's suit and the ruling.

Heller did uphold the existing restrictions on "dangerous and unusual" weapons, specifically naming tightly controlled Title 2 weapons as the exemplar of that category. So it is pretty clear that the court intended to preserve the de facto consensus that we have had for decades; non-automatics own-able by mentally competent adults with clean records, self-defense specifically protected, howitzers/explosives/machineguns more tightly controlled.

There is absolutely no way whatsoever that a ban (de facto or literal) on handgun ownership by mentally competent adults with clean records can be squared with the Heller ruling, since Heller (and McDonald) were specifically *about* handgun bans, and D.C.'s was struck down.