628
Stevens, J., dissenting
taxation, registration, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements for businesses and transactions involving statutorily defined firearms, and requires that each firearm be identified by a serial number. 26 U. S. C. §§ 5801-5802, 5811-5812, 5821-5822, 5842-5843. The Secretary of the Treasury must maintain a central registry that includes the names and addresses of persons in possession of all firearms not controlled by the Government. § 5841. Congress also prohibited certain acts and omissions, including the possession of an unregistered firearm.8 § 5861.
As the Court acknowledges, ante, at 607, to interpret statutory offenses such as § 5861(d), we look to "the nature of the statute and the particular character of the items regulated" to determine the level of knowledge required for conviction. An examination of § 5861(d) in light of our precedent dictates that the crime of possession of an unregistered machinegun is in a category of offenses described as "public welfare" crimes.9 Our decisions interpreting such offenses clearly require affirmance of petitioner's conviction.
II
"Public welfare" offenses share certain characteristics: (1) they regulate "dangerous or deleterious devices or products
8 "Omission of a mental element is the norm for statutes designed to deal with inaction. Not registering your gun, not cleaning up your warehouse, United States v. Park, 421 U. S. 658 . . . (1975), and like 'acts' are done without thinking. Often the omission occurs because of lack of attention. . . . Yet Congress may have sound reasons for requiring people to investigate and act, objectives that cannot be achieved if the courts add mental elements to the statutes." Ross, 917 F. 2d, at 1000.
9 These statutes are sometimes referred to as "strict liability" offenses. As the Court notes, because the defendant must know that he is engaged in the type of dangerous conduct that is likely to be regulated, the use of the term "strict liability" to describe these offenses is inaccurate. Ante, at 607-608, n. 3. I therefore use the term "public welfare offense" to describe this type of statute.
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