... then what did the people that wrote and ratified the amendment mean when the used the term? Did the founding fathers take it to mean the state could lay any restriction on ht e right to keep and bear arms it wanted, so long as a citizen was, eventually, able to buy a gun? Does the same argument apply to "abridged"? If not, why not?
That was my point. They were willing and able to pass laws to restrict the First Amendment but never chose to do the same for the Second.
I thought the Constitution is the law of the land and that gun rights are off limits to both federal and state governments. When authorities regulate crowds practicing free speech, they are not regulating speech, they are regulating crowd issues for public safety. Carrying a gun for legal purposes does not include pointing it at people, so we have reasonable regulations, but this does not justify state issue of permits.