The Supreme Court has also sanctioned restrictions on gun ownership by such individuals, repeatedly holding in recent decisions that such federal and state laws to prohibit gun ownership by criminals and other dangerous individuals are well within the bounds of the Constitution. Congress recognized the need to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people more than 40 years ago when it passed the Gun Control Act of 1968, which prohibited felons and other dangerous individuals from owning guns. While opinions may differ as to the scope of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, almost all Americans agree that criminals should not have access to guns. Endnotes and citations are available in the PDF and Scribd versions.
