"At this point, I fear we have lost all hope of a court that recognizes a plain reading of the Constitution. I view all decisions as a crap shoot."
Then we need to recognize this game for what it is; purely political. We need to drop the nonsense about 'objectivity' and nominate legislative candidates, or (much preferably) get replacements straight up vetted by Scalia since he's been the most consistently respectable jurist up there (Thomas and Alito have their moments, but neither are so frequently quotable). Heck, I'd settle for simply nominating people that specifically do not have an ivy league background, as that's been a poisonous statist well for decades (centuries?)
Also, is it just me, or do we never hear fromt the liberal side of things apart from Kennedy (which is practically the only time they triumph, lately)? I can't remember the last time someone tossed up a Ginsberg quote, except to illustrate nonsense, and I don't even know if the other three even write opinions for all the press they (don't) get. Heck, I haven't even heard Breyer's name in at least months. Whatever Scalia says, regardless his majority/minority status, seems to get at least a mention in the papers, as does Thomas with regularity. Pretty clear that Scalia should have been promoted to Chief, but I suppose it doesn't work that way...
I fully agree that a RKBA case is incredibly dangerous right now. I think Scalia knows it, too. Roberts has plainly shown himself to be unwilling to take a principled stand on partisan issues, obviously believing that if he takes the course of action least disruptive to governmental/societal function it reflects on his objectivity. The result of this situation is that, when the stakes are high, we have four highly motivated liberal justices, three supposed constitutionalists, a fifth noncommittal liberal justice continually siding with the most popular option, and a fourth cowardly conservative that will follow the path of least resistance if there is any. Those ingredients spell multiple 6-3 decisions against us, I'm afraid, especially since the issues before them these days are distilled past the point where cop-outs like 'reasonable restrictions' will be available to get a flake like Kennedy on board.
TCB