--- nothing in Article VI contradicts what I've said. If the Bill of Rights doesn't apply to the states, and up until 1868, nothing indicated that it did, a state could freely enact laws that infringed on the ownership of firearms without being in conflict with the US Constitution. No problem.
Why do you want States to have the power to prohibit guns?
Why is this "no problem"? - It's sure a problem to Californians.
Why do I want states to have the power to prohibit guns? Because they DO! Federalism allows states to make decisions we don't agree with. Not everything is a right. It is EXACTLY this kind of thinking that leads the Supreme Court to make decisions like Brown and Roe and Griswold and the VMI case--because the notion that everything is a right.
If Californians don't like it, they can vote at the ballot box or they can vote with their feet. I own a lot of guns, and you'll get my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands--but at the same time, I wouldn't live in California if it was the last place on Earth.
The beauty of Our Federalism is that the federal government can't just stomp all over the states when it feels like. Individual states are free to make laws that not everyone agrees with. If Alabama wants to ban dildoes (it does), great. Fine. There's no "right" to buy one. If Virginia wants to ban unmarried co-habitation (it did until this year), fine. If Vermont wants to allow same-sex marriages, also fine. We've got 50 great states (well, OK, 35 great states and 15 ok ones) and I'm sure that you can find one that you like.
Once you start allowing the federal government to stomp all over the states, there is no principled place to draw the line. You seemed to imply earlier that you thought Brown was wrongly decided--why? If you think the federal government can command the states, why was Brown wrong?
Do you disagree with publius valerius that the bill of rights were not originally mean to apply to the states (later being erroneously made applicable peacemeal to the states by activist courts)?
to clarify my question at post 146, i am asking about those specific original bill of rights that were apparently directed toward congress.