"What the 'right to bear arms' really means"

Saul Cornell (Salon):

Given that Americans have been debating the merits of gun rights and gun regulation since the era of Andrew Jackson, one might wonder if there's any hope for progress on this contentious issue. Ironically, the recent decision of the Roberts court to reinterpret the Second Amendment as an individual right that guarantees access to a workable handgun in the home for self-defense might help change the terms of debate. In the face of this, the old slippery slope argument that regulation is the first step toward confiscation simply has no meaning anymore. MORE...