3rd Circuit Court Of Appeals: Guns Need Serial Numbers

[Kevlar]

In an important Second Amendment decision that charts a course for evaluating the validity of gun laws now that the U.S. Supreme Court has declared the right to be an individual one, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to strike down a federal law that bans possession of guns with obliterated serial numbers.

Perhaps the most important lesson to be gleaned from U.S. Circuit Judge Anthony J. Scirica's opinion in United States v. Marzzarella is that courts faced with unanswered questions in the Second Amendment arena should consider looking to the extensive jurisprudence on First Amendment claims for guidance.

"The First Amendment is the natural choice," Scirica wrote, noting that the U.S. Supreme Court's watershed decision in District of Columbia v. Heller repeatedly invoked the First Amendment in establishing principles governing the Second Amendment.

"We think this implies the structure of First Amendment doctrine should inform our analysis of the Second Amendment," Scirica wrote.

Scirica, who was joined by 3rd Circuit Judge Michael A. Chagares and visiting U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez of the District of New Jersey, looked to First Amendment law in deciding that the federal ban on guns with obliterated serial numbers should be subjected to "intermediate scrutiny."

But even if the law were held to strict scrutiny, Scirica said, it would still pass constitutional muster.

"Serial number tracing serves a governmental interest in enabling law enforcement to gather vital information from recovered firearms," Scirica wrote, "Because it assists law enforcement in this manner, we find its preservation is not only a substantial but a compelling interest."

In the appeal, Michael Marzzarella argued that his conviction under Section 922(k) for possessing a gun with an obliterated serial number should be overturned because the law is unconstitutional under the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller.....

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?..._Heller_rd_Circuit_OKs_Ban_on_Unnumbered_Guns.

 

[TomH]

Will they start serializing steak knives too?

 

[lupis42]

In related new, the serial number on this thread is 1513841

 

[MrSparkle]

Will they start serializing steak knives too?

IDK about here but in the UK, it would surprise me if they didn't.

 

[KMaurer]

Proof once again that even otherwise reliable legal sources can be pig ignorant when it comes to the subject of firearms and firearm laws. Despite the headline at law.com proclaiming that the decision upheld a ban on unnumbered guns, the court did nothing of the sort for the simple reason that no such ban exists. I have several guns without any serial numbers currently in my possession. While it's been common practice by most gun makers to put serial numbers on their products for many years, this wasn't required by federal law until 1968. Even then, the law requires manufacturers (or importers) to put unique serial numbers on individual firearms, but doesn't require such numbers on guns made or imported before that time. What the court did uphold was that section of federal law that prohibits obliterating or attempting to obliterate existing serial numbers of firearms or possessing firearms with obliterated or defaced serial numbers. It's a bit like short barrel rifles: they're legal to own but you can't simply saw off the barrel on an existing rifle without first jumping through some legal hoops.

Ken