620
Ginsburg, J., concurring in judgment
so far as we are aware, any other has undertaken to delineate a precise line or set forth comprehensive criteria for distinguishing between crimes that require a mental element and crimes that do not." 342 U. S., at 260. We attempt no definition here, either. We note only that our holding depends critically on our view that if Congress had intended to make outlaws of gun owners who were wholly ignorant of the offending characteristics of their weapons, and to subject them to lengthy prison terms, it would have spoken more clearly to that effect. Cf. United States v. Harris, 959 F. 2d 246, 261 (CADC), cert. denied, 506 U. S. 932 (1992). For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Court of
Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
So ordered.
Justice Ginsburg, with whom Justice O'Connor joins, concurring in the judgment.
The statute petitioner Harold E. Staples is charged with violating, 26 U. S. C. § 5861(d), makes it a crime for any person to "receive or possess a firearm which is not registered to him." Although the word "knowingly" does not appear in the statute's text, courts generally assume that Congress, absent a contrary indication, means to retain a mens rea requirement. Ante, at 606; see Liparota v. United States, 471 U. S. 419, 426 (1985); United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 438 U. S. 422, 437-438 (1978).1 Thus, our holding in United States v. Freed, 401 U. S. 601 (1971), that § 5861(d) does not require proof of knowledge that the firearm is un-registered, rested on the premise that the defendant indeed
1 Contrary to the dissent's suggestion, we have not confined the presumption of mens rea to statutes codifying traditional common-law offenses, but have also applied the presumption to offenses that are "entirely a creature of statute," post, at 625, such as those at issue in Liparota, Gypsum, and, most recently, Posters 'N' Things, Ltd. v. United States, ante, at 522-523.
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