You want some common-sense gun control? Here you go.

[politicat]

45. I'm okay with exempting single-shot black powder devices & National Guard service.

The National Guard is the logical extension of "well regulated militia." Want an unlimited license? Then please pass a physical, and we'll see you one weekend a month and for a couple weeks every year. We also expect you to pitch in when your state gets hit by $Disaster. The license lasts as long as your service. (You can't pass the physical? Then you're looking at a more limited license. We limit in practical terms the rights to assembly, speech, and access to the courts, too, and those are all in the Bill of Rights. Well-regulated. It's in the Amendment. Please protest to the Framers. Line forms at the TARDIS.)

Alternately, firearms in 1787 were limited to muzzle-loading, black powder, single shot devices. They could be almighty big, but they took between 20 and 40 seconds to reload. They could be very accurate, but that took a lot of practice. (I'm interested in the Napoleonic Wars, so essentially, the same era in terms of technology.) Also, even the pistols of the day were freakin' awkward. Warfare of the time was a team endeavor. If bow hunters today and 18th and 19th century hunters could manage to bring home the venison, duck, goose and boar, so can we. Hunting is a skill one can't pick up by paying some money and not practicing.

Lastly, today, the median household income is about $45K. In 1787, after adjustments for fluctuations, a single, basic rifle cost the equivalent of between 10 and 15% of annual income. (The numbers get funky.) Today, they're around 1%. Industrialization has been very, very good to us, but this consumer good is too cheap.