The 2008 Heller vs DC case established explicitly in American jurisprudence that the Second Amendment dealt with and protected a PRIVATE right to arms by PRIVATE citizens in their PRIVATE capacity. Without this decision, nothing in the private arms realm would be constitutionally secure.
The case was won by taking a moderate approach. The DC gun ban of the time worked by requiring handguns be registered, but forbidding any more to be registered after 1977-78. The approach taken was not to challenge the registration requirement, but simply to require DC to permit new registrations. It worked.
But this is fundamentally contrary to the "principle" people who insist on a purist/libertarian interpretation of 2A and that every effort in that regard have no qualifications. The theoretical effort I suggest regarding pistol magazines in the face of magazine limitations (TDF 90) is anathema to them. No partial measures to promote RKBA, and no conciliatory gestures, even to maintain firepower in the face of BLM thugs wanting to rape White women (HERE) and forcibly impregnate them with a next generation of Colin Kaepernicks.
And some pro-gun outfits did indeed snipe at the effort, and the NRA specifically, for this approach. I recall Gun Owners of America, a "no-compromise" group that gets very little done, accusing NRA of "supporting gun registration" because at one point the lawyer they sponsored in the case--then still under the name, "Parker"--said that the plaintiff "wants to register his guns." Obviously, of course, the lawyer was referring to what was discussed above, yet GOA--an opportunist group--twisted the line in a way meant to confuse simple-minded Teabrainers.
The truth is, had the purist approach been taken, Parker/Heller would have failed. SCOTUS would likely have found against the individual right due to Anthony Kennedy's notoriously non-judicial approach to judicial matters. Indeed, Justice Antonin Scalia had to produce a rather weak and problematic (TDF 17) decision just to get Kennedy to sign on to it. Had he gone for something more akin to his stated positions on 2A/RKBA, Scalia would have at best left us a situation where even the most baseline RKBA that TDF has talked about would be in constitutional question, and quite possibly completely lost the case for pro-gunners.
Naysayers, of course, will yell, "Shall Not Be Infringed!" and ignore this reality today, even more that GOA did in the leadup to that blessed day in 2008. Between opportunism, personal self-absorption into indulgence, and a genuine degree of being spoiled by the Heller win, they endanger both rights and firepower. And some are frankly too dumb, too unsophisticated, too self-focused--and maybe too ADHD in a few cases--to learn. They are a danger to American heritage by enabling our enemies (TDF 67).
From 2018: Firepower is more important than principle. (Click to enlarge.)
TDF INDEX: Cats, Guns, and National Security: THE DAILY FUDD index. https://catsgunsandnationalsecurity.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-daily-fudd-index.html
