Thank you. In effect you made my point as to the 14th. States were abusing their police powers by violating the 2nd amendment rights, [among others] of freed slaves.
Thus the need for the 14th. -- The fact that it has since been abused by the USSC in other ways does not invalidate its principle of protecting life, liberty, and property.
You are just making a circular argument. You do not like the way the States treated certain people, therefore you want to expand the power of the Federal Government. But that was not the intended function of the Federal Government.
If the State Police power is administered in an arbitrary or capricious manner, the remedy is supposed to be in the State Courts.
What you seek to do--or others like you--is to change the Federal Government from being a servant of the people, intended to fulfill certain functions with which we could all agree, into being an enforcer of uniform ideas throughout the States. That is a complete distortion, and should be resisted for all the reasons that led to the original separation from England.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site