The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms and was adopted on December 15, 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. The Supreme Court has ruled that the right belongs to individuals for self-defense, while also ruling that the right is not unlimited and does not prohibit long-standing bans from the possession "of firearms by felons or the mentally ill" of firearms or similar devices. State and local governments are limited to the same extent as the federal government from infringing this right.