Last week, the Bush administration put troubling distance between itself and principled Second Amendment defenders. We refer to the amicus brief that Solicitor General Paul Clement filed Friday in support of the plaintiffs in District of Columbia v. Heller — the D.C. gun-ban challenge, widely expected to be the court's most significant gun-rights case in 60 years when a decision is reached. The brief sides with the D.C. plaintiffs seeking to exercise their Second Amendment rights, but it then expends much effort worrying that an end to gun bans like the District's would mean an end to most types of...