N.O. Pundit

Hey Ken,
This article was very interesting, and avoided the usual pitfalls of punditry. As the author says in closing:

If adopted, the Standard Model approach would go a long way toward easing those fears, by protecting an individual right to arms. But because the Standard Model approach permits many reasonable limits on gun ownership and gun wearing, most genuine gun control efforts--those not aimed at confiscation--would pass muster.

While I'm still not so keen on national-level gun policies, he is correct in that some of the elements of this model (qualification for ownership, does not protect "brandishing" weapons, etc) do address the type of issues that most 2nd ammendment interpretations do not. But then, my concerns aren't based on constitutional interpretation, only my personal concerns, so I shouldn't expect a constitutional argument to jive 100%. Indeed, the fact that this model (the "Standard Model") explicitly protects posession of military-grade small arms presents a hurdle. As individually "bearable" weapons grow more and more powerful (.50 cal sniper rifles, RPGs, etc) they asymtotically approach the "nuclear missile" argument. That said, I would totally buy an AK-47 if I could! ;-)

ttyl,
Charles