I’m glad I live in a state that has enacted robust constitutional protections that make such opinions irrelevant where I live. Heller gives me the space I need from the federal government. At the state and local levels I don’t think it’s a good idea to have to rely on any branch of the federal government to step in to define and defend my right to keep and bear arms.
What happens when that great state you live in is overrun by leftists and statists who elect liberal gun-grabbing dems that appoint leftist judges and pass gun-grabbing laws. When the leftist/statist judges decide that your state constitution doesn't protect you from the leftist/statist legislature, you would prefer the notion being advocated on this thread that states are free to abrogate the right of the people to bear arms all they want? You are satisfied that at least the federal government is prohibited from taking your guns away?
That's probably true in states which honor the RKBA section of their own constitutions. But in some states such as CA, NY, NJ, MA, IL, etc, etc, the state courts don't enforce their own state Constitutions' prohibition of state and local laws that ban certain class's of guns and/or put severe restrictions on gun possession and use in general. In those states either the SCOTUS' proper interpretation of the 2nd Amendment protects the people's RKBA or it isn't protected at all, which is currently the case in IL as was demonstrated by the 7th circuit yesterday. If there are 5 Justices on the court who are still willing to acknowledge the author's true intent for the 2nd Amendment, hopefully the 7th circuit will be reversed and the state and local laws of IL and every other state which now denies it's citizens their right to arms will be nullified.
If the SCOTUS grants certiorari to the NRA appeal it will all come down to whether or not Kennedy will stand by his vote on Heller. I believe he only gave his tepid support to the four originalists opinion in exchange for them watering down the wording to allow more infringement on the RKBA than they would otherwise have allowed. God help us as long as our ability to exercise our rights and liberties depends on the grudging agreement of a capricious weasel like Kennedy to vote for an interpretation of the Constitution that he knows is what it's authors intended it to mean instead of what he wants it to mean. If Bush could have gotten one more opportunity to appoint a Justice we might be able to breathe easier. But thanks to the tenacity of a slowly dying cancer patient and the deliberate hold out by Souter until Bush left office he didn't get that opportunity, and our RKBA is once again at Kennedy's mercy if the SCOTUS accepts the NRA appeal.