The selection of the individual plaintiffs is another example. The case didn't arise as many do, from the arrest of a guy we all know is a bad guy, whose conviction is appealed over some aspect of Constitutional procedure. Dick Heller was a security guard who carried a gun all day and somehow managed never to shoot anyone who didn't need shooting, so how could DC say that it would be dangerous to let him have a gun at home?
The case was manufactured in a sense. I think Heller intentionally moved to DC in the seventies just so he could eventually bring this case. Heller was smallball in a sense, leaving SCOTUS no excuse to find against him. Having secured a beachhead with a victory in a case with extreme regulation in a federal enclave and a sympathetic plaintiff, and a finding that 2A is indeed an individual right, they can now use that as a stepping stone to more useful rulings.
If the Court is ever tilted in favor of the Constitution, a similar approach would be good for dealing with NFA'34: have the Second Amendment Foundation register an M16A1 for $200 and sue for a refund of the tax amount. That was the approach used by Thompson/Center v. U.S., which established that a collection of parts which could be assembled into either a pistol or a short-barreled rifle does not constitute a short-barreled rifle unless it is actually assembled as one.