Even convicted felons have rights, IMO there is nothing in the 2A about it is OK to infringe on the rights of someone who has made a mistake. If they are too dangerous to own a handgun they are too dangerous to be out of jail. I agree completely with the court on this. SOMEBODY needs to teach people that cops cannot search you without RAS. IMO if we take guns away from anybody it should be those people who do not believe in the constitution.
I haven't researched this too closely, but as far as I can tell, denying self-defense rights to felons started either with GCA1968 or NFA1930's. Well after the 2A was written. As far as I know, from the Framing forward for at least 100 years, felons were not denied the right to self-defense.
As others have pointed out, denying felons this-or-that merely establishes the government power to do so, with little objection from the rest of the populace because...well...we're not felons. But, the foot is in the door. Anybody else who is somewhat looked down on by society (translation: minority) is open to similar treatment. Until one day, here comes the government trying to remove that right from the remaining people.
Wanta bet how far gun control would have gotten if it had been shouted down and marched against when it was first tried on felons?
As members of society, we need to stand up for all rights of everybody, and not let ourselves be drawn into factional discord by those who profit from it. For example, as much as I detest username The Donkey, I'll vigorously support his right to carry that ridiculous BUG he OCed to that VCDL meeting years ago.