prevent the government from banning guns and imposing silly gun restrictions?
The Heller decision only prevents the Federal government from banning guns. It does not immediately apply to state and local gun bans. In Heller, the Supreme Court confirmed that individuals in our country have Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms, but the Court did not say whether this important right binds just the federal government, or extends with equal force to states and localities. The Bill of Rights directly binds only the federal government, not state and local governments. After the Civil War, Americans recognized that state and local governments were often a more immediate threat to their liberties than was the federal government. The Fourteenth Amendment was intended to remedy this problem, and prevent states and localities from violating our civil rights. The southern states’ infringement of the freedmen’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was a prime motivator for enacting the Fourteenth Amendment. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not immediately
