So I would agree with WVCDL that some of Kavanaugh’s personal convictions (at least those he stated) do not look the strongest on gun rights. Not as strong as our 2A activists here on this forum. I don't agree with his statements about gun regulations and crime; hated that part. And (a second point of theirs, his professional views) they have a fair criticism that he's mostly going by precedent and tradition. That could be dangerous if any unconstitutional restriction exists long enough in a court's opinion ("longstanding") to be grandfathered and embraced, possibly to be used as a new precedent for other restrictions. That's troubling for me too.
But WVCDL misses on the first point that Kavanaugh was using his personal views as an intentional contrast, highlighting them, to emphasize that as a judge he is using other criteria instead. His job is judge, not activist or police chief, or some imaginary entity that "decrees" policy. That means the personal views he put down were also a hypothetical "if ... might" and not a real existing situation or decision for him. So that might not necessarily represent the whole of his personal views.
When it comes to the second point of his professional views and the issue of precedent and tradition, the reason he went on and on for pages is this was the heart of how the court would approach and decide the case, the scrutiny and so on. Judges also have to use precedent or they don't have much footing and would be seriously shaking the boat they are in. As an outsider I would like for them to shake that boat more when precedent conflicts with the Constitution, but obviously they are invested in their system. They are usually going to have that bias.
WVCDL really messed up when they attributed a Ginsburg quote to Kavanaugh. How did that even happen? Easy to happen for one person, we can all mess up. But publishing an organization's official anti-candidate statement signed by 8 people, to "interpret" the court statements for readers and suggesting that among 2A orgs backing Kavanaugh, "we can only conclude that none of them have bothered to read his dissent" - wow. Such a big and obvious mistake shouldn't happen, especially while bragging about being the only careful readers. Obviously this wasn't double-checked enough before publishing; bad habits, too much trust in self and group. That mistake probably also led their writer to view K's other statements harshly and ignore some of the context.
Loser: WVCDL. Despite having a couple of legitimate points that they could have made more effectively if they hadn't been so careless.
Winner: Kavanaugh. I think we should support this guy.
Bottom line: As COL already pointed out with a similar quote, notice that if K had prevailed, the result would have been "the D.C. ban on semi-automatic rifles and the D.C. gun registration requirement are unconstitutional" etc. That's not bad at all. That's better than usual. I wouldn't jump to conclusions about how he will argue other specific 2A issues. Might not always go the way you expect. But on the whole I would expect him to be at least OK for guns rights. Maybe OK, maybe great.
I think GOA had it right:
Initial reports suggest that Judge Kavanaugh deeply respects the Second Amendment, even though he was not the strongest of the finalists.
Nevertheless, Judge Kavanaugh filed a pro-gun dissent in Heller II, arguing that Washington, DC’s ban on semi-automatic firearms was arbitrary and unlawful.
In fact, his dissent was so well argued that GOA’s subsequent legal briefs have repeatedly held up his dissent as the model to follow.
...
GOA hopes that the Senate will confirm Kavanaugh - and that the Supreme Court will take up more Second Amendment cases, thus repealing the onerous and unconstitutional restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms that exist throughout the country.
All of this discussion is useless if people don't vote this year. I don't care whether you love Trump, or have TDS, or hate Trump but deny TDS, or whatever. You can see the Trump is picking good judges that we need, so if you believe in 2A, let's get it done. Get some people out to vote this year, make a Red Wave to support our 2A rights, and also make the appropriate contacts now to support Judge K's confirmation.
(WVCDL is entitled to their opinion, but at least needs to publish a correction on the facts.)