McCain takes aim at Obama over court gun ruling

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain accused Democratic rival Barack Obama on Thursday of reversing his position on a gun ban in the nation's capital and said it was part of a pattern of flip-flopping by the Illinois senator.

An Obama supporter responded by saying it was insincere for McCain to make that charge because he himself had flip-flopped "more times than a pancake."

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Thursday for the first time that individual Americans have a right to own guns, striking down a strict gun control law in Washington.

Obama in February had voiced support for the gun ban in Washington. But after the Supreme Court voted to lift the ban, Obama said he agreed with the court's decision that Americans have a right to bear arms.

"I have said consistently that I believe the Second Amendment is an individual right," Obama told Fox Business News, referring to the constitutional amendment that grants Americans the right to bear arms.

"And that was the essential decision that the Supreme Court came down on. And it also recognized that even though we have an individual right to bear arms, that right can be limited by sensible, reasonable gun laws," he said.

McCain, speaking to reporters on his Straight Talk Express bus in Cincinnati, saw a flip-flop on the part of his opponent in the November election.

"All I can say is, it's one in a long series of reversals of positions," McCain said.

The Arizona senator also has faced charges of position switches, most recently his decision last week to support lifting a ban on U.S. offshore oil drilling.

'THE KING OF FLIP-FLOPS'

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, an Obama supporter, disputed McCain on MSNBC, saying Obama had always been for individual gun rights.

"For Sen. McCain, the king of the flip-flops, who has flip-flopped more times than a pancake, it's really disingenuous for him to be making accusations like that," the Florida lawmaker said.

McCain and his campaign surrogates cited Obama's decision last week to decline public financing for his campaign after saying he would take it, as well as his recent statement saying he was willing to explore nuclear power as an option for America's energy crisis after long opposing it.

McCain, in his Republican primary battle against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, had repeatedly characterized Romney as a flip-flopper.

The strategy aims to paint the opponent as someone who adjusts positions when it is politically convenient.

McCain is running behind Obama in national surveys of voters and in polls taken in a number of battleground states, including Ohio, which has been a key factor in the last two presidential elections.

Many presidential candidates move to a more centrist position after winning battles for their party's nomination that often pull them to the left or right.

A McCain supporter, Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, said he believed Obama was moving to the center.

"It does seem to reflect a willingness that as the campaign changes from a primary to a general, willingness to change on positions, to be more liberal in the primary, to moving more conservative in the general election," Brownback said.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)