Maybe We Could Make It Illegal To Sell Guns Anymore

[branford]

138. At a minimum, to pass constitutional muster, the question must be asked

what important government interest is served by banning the sale of firearms, and is the means substantially related to that interest.

If the interest is essentially "less guns are better," courts have already dealt with this issue, and answered with a firm no. It's essentially a law expressly designed to simply diminish or gradually eliminate the exercise of a constitutionally protected right, and will not pass constitutional muster.

Note also that although in the past few decades the number of lawful guns have increased by tens of millions or more, rates of violent crime have diminished by about half. The government would have difficulty proving correlation, no less causation, for a policy limiting the number of gun in order to reduce violent crime.

Unsurprisingly, it's very difficult to implement broad and pervasive regulations that have the potential to severely restrict constitutionally protected activity.