Wolford v. Lopez · ¶21

But while the founding generation cherished the Second Amendment right, they did not think it was absolute. Hel ler explained—and later cases have reiterated—that the Second Amendment “codified a pre-existing right.” Id., at 592. And this right, as understood at the time, was not an “unlimited” right “to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.” Id., at 592, 626. Similarly, Heller warned that “nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.” Id., at 626; see also McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U. S. 742, 786 (2010) (opinion of ALITO, J.); United States v. Rahimi, 602 U. S. 680, 699 (2024).

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