Second Amendment Arguments

The US supreme court heard arguments on the constitutionality of the DC ban on handguns today. With J.Kennedy siding with the ban opponents, in all likelihood, the ban will be struck down. However, whether a reasonableness standard under which the scope of the restriction on arms ownership will be determined is not so clear. Also, I was somewhat surprised that most judges seemed to concur that machine guns will not be covered - given that even the Solicitor General Clement conceded that 'keep and bear' refers primarily though not solely to military use, it seems to me that machine guns have a stronger case to be protected by the second amendment than hand guns do. It is likely that some of the liberals including J. Stevens and J. Breyer who pointed that out may come out in support of the ban though I do not expect him to actually pronounce that machine guns are okay. It seems for now that individual self-defense and use of arms for hunting will end up being protected with even conservative judges allowing restrictions to apply to more dangerous weaponry which is ironical given that the plain language of the Second Amendment seems to make clear exactly otherwise, i.e., the chief concern pertained to national defense through a civilian army. Anyway, more when the opinion is actually pronounced.