It was so held by this Court in the case of United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542, 92 U. S. 553, in which THE CHIEF JUSTICE, in delivering the judgment of the Court, said that the right of the people to keep and bear arms "is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The Second Amendment declares that it shall not be infringed, but this, as has been seen, means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress. This is one of the amendments that has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the national government, leaving the people to look for their protection against any violation by their fellow citizens of the rights it recognizes to what is called in City of New York v. Miln, 11 Pet. 102, 36 U. S. 139, the 'powers which relate to merely municipal legislation, or what was perhaps more properly called internal police,' 'not surrendered or restrained' by the Constitution of the United States."[citations omitted]
It is undoubtedly true that all citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserved military force or reserve militia of the United States as well as of the states, and, in view of this prerogative of the general government, as well as of its general powers, the states cannot, even laying the constitutional provision in question [2nd amendment] out of view, prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms so as to deprive the United States of their rightful resource for maintaining the public security, and disable the people from performing their duty to the general government.
One will note that that the federal courts chronically lied about this case, falsely claiming that is stands for the proposition that states MAY prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms.
Note too, in Cruickshank, plaintiff was trying to have the constitution apply to private citizens.
Now, at rock bottom, all government is, is brute force, and the only way to contain it is by brute force. Governments are not constrained by constitutions and laws. Government use constitutions and laws to turn the people docile.
Real simple. Keep your guns, just pay the $2/round tax and $1 ammunition identification cost fee.
Can’t outlaw cigarettes can they? Just pay the .50 per cigarette tax. If you think the Obama court (and he will get his appointment) aren’t coming for your gun rights you haven’t been paying attention for the last 50 years.