Court rejects gun appeals testing right to own firearms

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court said Monday it will not hear two cases that would have tested the Bush administration's newly articulated position that the Constitution protects an individual's right to own guns.

Without comment, the court turned down two men convicted of violating federal gun laws. The men had argued that the laws are unconstitutional because the Second Amendment gives Americans the right to "keep and bear arms."

The cases marked the first time that the Bush administration had told the Supreme Court that it has reversed a decades-old policy on the Second Amendment. Until now, the government has said the amendment protects a collective, not an individual, right to gun ownership.

The distinction is important, because gun laws necessarily restrict individual rights.

The administration also said its new position does not undermine federal gun laws, because the Second Amendment right is still subject to "reasonable restrictions."

Using that rationale, the administration urged the high court not to accept the appeals of Timothy Joe Emerson and John Lee Haney. Both were properly charged under laws the administration considers reasonable limitations of the gun right, solicitor general Theodore Olson said.

Olson was reflecting a view that Attorney General John Ashcroft had voiced last year in a letter to the National Rifle Association.