To my mind, however much you might try to curtail the over-broad use of the Commerce Clause, you will achieve nothing if you do not also address the elastic clause.
In what I have read so far the SC rulings about Commerce usually do pair it with elastic. In at least one case that I read about, I think that the elastic clause was paired with commerce, as a means of applying the aggregation principle and the "substantial effects" tests (which publius42 mentioned). Could you fill us in more, Antipitas, about the pairing of commererce and elastic?
IMHO the use and abuse the commerce clause has singularly been the source of all major power grabs by the feds to exert control of our states and us, for the most part not directly from specifically enacted laws, but from the laws that create regulatory agencies (Dept. of Agriculture, Dept. of Commerce, the USDA, the FCC, etc., etc.), that are not directly answerable to the people (us). The use of the constructed "constitutionality" of an all encompassing commerce clause is THE MAJOR
domestic power of the federal government.
Want to grow some wheat on your family plot so that you can grind your own flour and make your own bread? Watch out, you may be in violation of federal regulations. Ah, you might say, the good people from Washington, D.C. want to make sure you don't kill yourself by doing something stupid while growing, harvesting, grinding, and baking, right? Wrong!
You might, however, be in violation of inter-state commerce regulations that might regulate how much wheat can be grown (market effect). But, you say, I'm buying the wheat seed to plant from a farmer in my state, I will grow the wheat in my state, I will grind it in my state, I will bake the bread in my state, I will eat the bread in my state and I will not sell any of the fruits of my labor in another state or even in my state. How can I be violating interstate commerce regulations?
Well, it's simple, really. If you grow your own wheat for your own bread, for your own consumption, you will be buying less bread, causing the bakery to buy less wheat. Even though your small operation will not actually affect interstate wheat prices, just think if a lot of people did what you are doing, wheat prices might be go down. So, you may not do this and if you do this dastardly deed anyway, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Wickard v. Filburn,
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1949/1942/1942_59/
This is the same reasoning, and ultimately, the same power of congress (interstate commerce regulation) that will evetually be used to liscense (or not) and otherwise regulate those of us who load our own ammunition. They can get us without bending the 2nd amendment. Constitutionally granted government powers trump constitutionally protected individual rights