Or the word "states."
Exactly! It doesn't say "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed except by the states.
The Supreme Court rejected that facile argument centuries ago.
"Had the framers of these amendments intended them to be limitations on the powers of the State governments, they would have imitated the framers of the original Constitution, and have expressed that intention. Had Congress engaged in the extraordinary occupation of improving the Constitutions of the several States by affording the people additional protection from the exercise of power by their own governments in matters which concerned themselves alone, they would have declared this purpose in plain and intelligible language."