Mike,
This is better than smoke and mirrors. This was an important issue to assure we keep at least a few of the rights we traditionally had. Those rights are very easy to take away and very difficult to get back. No it will not help with the large problems of the country but really could have made things worse at a tough time if it went the other way. People hold on strongly to the right to arms not because of government fear like some believe but because it is tradition and real tradition not made up for monitary gain. People hunt and fish and do these thing because that is their way of life and taking even a small part of that away can be terribly damaging. It was a good decision IMO.