Don H said:
Without, hopefully, getting too far off track, the Second Amendment hasn't stopped the federal government from infringing on the right to keep and bear arms and I doubt the states would be any less successful. Incorporation, however, would probably curtail some of the more egregious infringements that states practice, depending, of course, on the make-up of the USSC at the time.
Correct. The Federal government has been eroding the Second Amendment ever since the NFA of 1934 (no federal gun control law existed before then; the NRA said they'd fight it and get it repealed and here we are) and then the GCA of 1968. To get our rights back, we have to take baby steps. Heller was a big hurdle, next is incorporation, then challenges all over the country to repeal controls placed on our rights.
We have ruled it is an individual right. Next we have to rule what they can't do such as bans and controls. The gun grabbers will take the same approach with the gun safety routine as far as the Consumer Protection Act allows them to do. California, Massachusetts, New York, and others have passed legislation to regulate firearms and mainly handguns in the name of safety. The gun grabbers will try to find some way around any court ruling.
Key points to hammer out:
Limits of controls. What they can ban and what they can't.
What constitutes "arms". Small arms as in shoulder fired weapons. Shall it include parts, sub assemblies, ammunition and its components?
What line is reasonable to draw as far as preventing criminals from obtaining arms but still upholding and not infringing on the rights of free citizens?
Funny enough, the reason automatic weapons, suppressors, short barreled weapons weren't actually banned by the NFA of 1934 was because it was regarded as a right to own them. Through the process of an imposed tax upon the transfer that was very hefty for its time, especially when an automatic firearm could be bought for $25-$75, then taxed at $200, was out of reach for most people. They thought the way to control them so criminals couldn't get them is to make it so expensive that only the wealthy, upstanding citizens could afford to own them.
As a matter of fact, all concealable weapons were to be classified as AOWs, even handguns. However, the legislature thought it to be morally wrong to require a woman to pay an extra tax for a handgun for protection, so they kept these off the bill as being defined as AOWs and now their transfer isn't regulated by the NFA.
Just a bit of cool history about the NFA.