MaverickNH
NES Member
Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Wedding officiants, teaser profiles, and administrative animals.
reason.com
”Puerto Rican drug trafficker is arrested, and the ensuing search turns up a 9mm pistol. Whoa! It's been modified to fire fully automatic—it's a machine gun! The trafficker is charged with possession of a machine gun in furtherance of a drug crime, which carries a 30-year sentence. He objects that he had no idea the pistol was modified—he was holding it temporarily for his boss—and asks for a jury instruction requiring the gov't prove he knew the pistol had been modified. The district court denies the instruction, and he's convicted. First Circuit: Vacated. "The contention that an injury can amount to a crime only when inflicted by intention is … as universal and persistent in mature systems of law as belief in freedom of the human will and a consequent ability and duty of the normal individual to choose between good and evil."
Where mere possession of an automatic firearm is not a crime - if you didn’t know it was an automatic firearm. Could this be a precedent to claim in some states that you didn’t know your banned long gun was an assault weapon? The analogy isn’t perfect, but worth a try (If you’re already charged, that is).