ABATIS SAID:
“How can the right to abortion which is recognized to exist in the emanations and penumbra of the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, (including the right to keep and bear arms), be more vital, more respected and more unquestionable than the right to arms, which is specifically recognized in the Bill of Rights?"
Actually there's no 'right to abortion,' there's a right to privacy where state measures seeking to ban abortion would violate the right to privacy. And the states are at liberty to place restrictions on the privacy right with regard to abortion, provided those restrictions don't manifest an undue burden to the privacy right.
Likewise states are at liberty to place restrictions on the rights enshrined in the Second Amendment, where Federal and state courts have also used an undue burden standard to determine the Constitutionality of such measures.
Moreover, unlike 14th Amendment, substantive due process jurisprudence, Second Amendment jurisprudence is still in its infancy, still evolving – it could be another 50 years before we have a clear, accepted, settled, and comprehensive understanding of the Second Amendment, similar to the understanding with regard to 14th Amendment, substantive due process jurisprudence today.
Consequently it's not a matter of privacy rights being “more vital, more respected and more unquestionable” than the rights codified by the Second Amendment – rather, the former has a longer, more comprehensive and robust jurisprudence than the latter.
ABATIS SAID:
“The challenges you speak of happened before
Heller and those challenged laws were upheld citing 20th century legal reasoning invalidated by
Heller (that the 2ndA was not ratified to secure individual rights but to secure a state's right / militia right from federal impact) and a longstanding legal holding reversed by
McDonald (that the 2nd Amendment did not impede state and local legislatures).”
And many of the challenges have been post
Heller/McDonald, New York's Safe Act and Colorado's magazine capacity and background check measure being recent examples. There have also been challenges to licensing fees and requirements, concealed carry restrictions, and the prohibition of persons aged 18 to 20 years from purchasing handguns.
As U.S. District Chief Judge Marcia Krieger observed in her ruling upholding Colorado's magazine capacity and background check measure in June of last year:
“The Supreme Court did not specify in
Heller what analytical framework should be used in testing laws challenged under the Second Amendment. This was, in part, because it found that[...]the ban it was considering (a law effectively prohibiting the possession of functional handguns inside or outside of the home) would fail all recognized tests for constitutionality. Id. at 628. Since
Heller, Second Amendment jurisprudence has continued to evolve, particularly with regard to the analytical standards to be applied.”
http://extras.mnginteractive.com/li..._032508_062614-Krieger-Opinion-Outfitters.pdf
In the coming decades this and similar issues will likely make their way to the Supreme Court, and as the Court rules over the coming decades a consistent jurisprudence will materialize affording lower courts guidance allowing them to determine what is an appropriate restriction of the Second Amendment right and what is not.