A statement like that is exactly why I shudder anytime I hear Arlen Spectre talk. He is one that thinks the judiciary is above all else, not all that unlike some other folks along this thread.
Don't get me wrong, I respect the power of the Judiciary and accept it's need in our Republic. It seems I respect something others fail to respect and that would be the fact that the judiciary is subject to the very same checks and balances as the other branches of government.
I like to hope the judiciary, thru a coming SCOTUS ruling concerning the DC decision, will excercise a check upon itself and right the ship of wrongs that have gone on too long. My fingers are crossed.
I read a little ways back in this thread, I think it might even have been your post, where the some 22 thousand laws need to be wiped away with only laws pertaining to unlawful abuse of a weapon(s) remaining. I agree with that wholeheartedly.
That's why SCOTUS will be in a bind. If they hear the DC case & rule against the plain meaning of the 2A, then they will have established that the Constitution means whatever one wants it to mean. Added to CFR/1A, it will become clear to even the most sanguine of individuals that our republic is slipping away.
However, if they rule in favor of the DC decision in support of the clear meaning of the 2A, then, as you say, 22k laws are wiped clean. How will the nation respond to such freedom? Instead of people trained and accustomed to their rights, we'll have a sudden freeing of restrictions.
How does this play with the growth & usurpation of government over the last 70 years? Would a militarily armed populace ever have allowed such a development to occur?
IOW, if SCOTUS rules in favor of the 2A, look out. Alternatively, if they rule against it, look out. This is a result of what happens when judicial activism retards the political debate.
My own take is that SCOTUS will ultimately rule in favor of the 2A, which then would launch an amendment process that would grant some level of regulation to the states. This is where the debate should have been all along, instead of taken away from us by the robed ones.