Selected Gun Control Cases Through 2010

SCOTUS held in Barron v. Baltimore (1833), that the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government, not to the states.

In the Slaughter-House Cases (1873), SCOTUS held that the Privileges or Immunities Clause did not protect individuals from state governments.

SCOTUS held in United States v. Cruikshank (1876) that the 1st and 2nd Amendments didn't apply to the states.

In Presser v. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252 (1886), SCOTUS held that the 2d Amendment does not apply to the states.

In Twining v. New Jersey (1908), SCOTUS held that the Due Process Clause might incorporate some of the Bill of Rights, but not the Privileges or Immunities Clause.

In United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939), SCOTUS held that the federal National Firearms Act was a constitutional reasonable regulation of firearms. 

In Barrett v. United States, 423 U.S. 212 (1976), SCOTUS held that a federal law banning felons from owning firearms was constitutional. 

In United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995), SCOTUS held that the gun free school act exceeded the commerce clause power of Congress, but did not consider a 2nd Amendment dimension to the case.

Wikipedia says that until 2001, all the courts had ruled that the 2nd amendment protected states' right to arm their citizens (a "collective right to bear arms") from encroachment by the federal government. The "well regulated militia" portion was considered to be an intrinsic part of the text, so that it was read to guarantee the right to bear arms only to such a militia. Prior to 2001, every circuit court decision that interpreted the Second Amendment endorsed the "collective right" model. However, beginning with the Fifth Circuit's opinion United States v. Emerson in 2001, some circuit courts recognized that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms. 

The 2nd Amendment was basically a dead letter until SCOTUS decided District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), which held that the 2nd Amendment established an individual constitutional right to bear arms for self-defense and defense of one's home vis-a-vis the federal government but subject to reasonable regulation. 

The 2nd Amendment was first held to apply to state and local governments via the 14th Amendment in McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010) which, like Heller allows for reasonable regulation of the right to bear arms for self-defense.