Our second amendment was written to ensure that the populace could overthrow a corrupt government, the revolutionary was started because the british tried to disarm the american populous. Dutchling, if you don't think a gun is necessary to defend yourself you can always not buy one, You can also trust your government to always have your best interests in mind, whatever floats your boat.
I'd just like to point out that the British were attempting to disarm the citizenry by
marching on the armory. In other words, their weapons were stored in a secure location,
not in their houses. Just as National Guardsmen and Army soldiers don't take their rifles home with them at the end of the day (outside of a war zone).
Even though I think the "armed citzenry to defend against the government" argument is ludicrous in this day and age (really? the DoD can target you FROM SPACE and hit you with a remote-piloted drone. Your popgun isn't going to be much help.), I'd be willing to entertain the fiction if 2nd Amendment fanatics remembered the whole text. A bunch of random yahoos with random firearms is NOT a "well-regulated Militia".
It's a mob with guns.The Federal government already had similar measures in place banning conversion kits, until Congress let the Federal Assault Weapons Ban expire. All this is, is California rebuilding that Federal law at the state level, since they still had their own state-level assault ban on the books.