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I have a hard time considering those who would toss out parts of the Constitution 'conservative', whether or not they wish to exercise the rights enumerated therein.

I have never advocated tossing out ANY part of the Constitution.

I just don't base ALL my value judgments on gun ownership. The second amendment is not the ONLY amendment - nor is it the most important amendment.

I don't know where you live - but I bet you don't live in Detroit, where I do and where the guns outnumber the population by a ratio of 3 to 1.

When you live surrounded by criminal thugs who all carry weapons - you are not always wild about the idea of them having even MORE guns.

I suppose if I was living in Lily-whitehood or a rural area, I might look at it differently.

I live in North Dakota, where I'd bet guns outnumber people by far more than three to one. (In my household the ratio is better than double that, and I'm definitely not a serious collector or anything like that.)

But those guns are not limited to the criminal element.

Instead, they are in the hands of farmers and ranchers and even the folks in town, who, even though they are an hour away from the nearest sheriff's unit, have the capability of stopping a crime in progress close at hand.

There are demographic differences as well, but North Dakota has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the country.

When you live surrounded by criminal thugs who all carry weapons - you are not always wild about the idea of them having even MORE guns.

The criminal elements are not supposed to have guns anyway, but that would be all the more incentive for ME to be armed to defend against them. YMMV.

If the current laws against criminals (felons) possessing a firearm are not working, do you think a few more will make any difference in their being armed?

Nope.

It will only make it harder for you to be, assuming you are not ranked among them, of course.

What, pray tell, is the sense in that?

It may be none of my business, but if things are that bad there, why don't you move?

Even as you protest you exhibit very suspicious attitudes for a Constitutionalist conservative. Legal Concealed Carry in DC would reduce the crime rate and make it a much safer place. The criminals will obtain and carry guns no matter what. They will be less apt to use them to assault citizens if there is a good possibility that the citizens are also armed. That is what happens just about everywhere that CC becomes law. England pretty much ended private gun ownership and the use of guns in crime has gone way up and burglaries have skyrocketed.