626
Stevens, J., dissenting
fense new to general law, for whose definition the courts have no guidance except the Act." Id., at 262.
Although the lack of an express knowledge requirement in § 5861(d) is not dispositive, see United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 438 U. S. 422, 438 (1978), its absence suggests that Congress did not intend to require proof that the defendant knew all of the facts that made his conduct illegal.3
The provision's place in the overall statutory scheme, see Crandon v. United States, 494 U. S. 152, 158 (1990), confirms this intention. In 1934, when Congress originally enacted the statute, it limited the coverage of the 1934 Act to a relatively narrow category of weapons such as submachineguns and sawed-off shotguns—weapons characteristically used only by professional gangsters like Al Capone, Pretty Boy Floyd, and their henchmen.4 At the time, the Act would have had little application to guns used by hunters or guns kept at home as protection against unwelcome intruders.5
3 The Seventh Circuit's comment in a similar case is equally apt here: "The crime is possessing an unregistered firearm—not 'knowingly' possessing an unregistered firearm, or possessing a weapon knowing it to be a firearm, or possessing a firearm knowing it to be unregistered. . . . [Petitioner's] proposal is not that we interpret a knowledge or intent requirement in § 5861(d); it is that we invent one." United States v. Ross, 917 F. 2d 997, 1000 (1990) (per curiam) (emphasis in original), cert. denied, 498 U. S. 1122 (1991).
4 "The late 1920s and early 1930s brought . . . a growing perception of crime both as a major problem and as a national one. . . . [C]riminal gangs found the submachinegun (a fully automatic, shoulder-fired weapon utilizing automatic pistol cartridges) and sawed-off shotgun deadly for close-range fighting." Hardy, The Firearms Owners' Protection Act: A Historical and Legal Perspective, 17 Cumb. L. Rev. 585, 590 (1987).
5 The Senate Report on the bill explained: "The gangster as a law violator must be deprived of his most dangerous weapon, the machinegun. Your committee is of the opinion that limiting the bill to the taxing of sawed-off guns and machineguns is sufficient at this time. It is not thought necessary to go so far as to include pistols and revolvers and sporting arms. But while there is justification for permitting the citizen to keep a pistol or revolver for his own protection without any restriction,
Page: Index Previous 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007