WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration has told the Supreme Court for the first time that it believes the Constitution protects an individual's right to possess guns, reversing the government's longstanding interpretation of the Second Amendment.
At the same time, Justice Department lawyers said the high court need not test that principle now.
[b]``The current position of the United States ... is that the Second Amendment more broadly protects the rights of individuals, including persons who are not members of any militia or engaged in active military service or training, to possess and bear their own firearms,''[\b] Solicitor General Theodore Olson wrote in two court filings this week.
That right, however, is [b]``subject to reasonable restrictions designed to prevent possession by unfit persons or to restrict the possession of types of firearms that are particularly suited to criminal misuse.'' [/b]
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