636
Stevens, J., dissenting
require knowledge of all the facts that constitute the offense of possession of an unregistered weapon. During the first 30 years of enforcement of the 1934 Act, consistent with the absence of a knowledge requirement and with the reasoning in Balint, courts uniformly construed it not to require knowledge of all the characteristics of the weapon that brought it within the statute. In a case decided in 1963, then-Judge Blackmun reviewed the earlier cases and concluded that the defendant's knowledge that he possessed a gun was "all the scienter which the statute requires." Sipes v. United States, 321 F. 2d 174, 179 (CA8), cert. denied, 375 U. S. 913 (1963).
Congress subsequently amended the statute twice, once in 1968 and again in 1986. Both amendments added knowledge requirements to other portions of the Act,21 but neither the text nor the history of either amendment discloses an intent to add any other knowledge requirement to the possession of an unregistered firearm offense. Given that, with only one partial exception,22 every federal tribunal to address the question had concluded that proof of knowledge of all the facts constituting a violation was not required for a convic-21 Significantly, in 1968, Congress included a knowledge requirement in § 5861(l). 26 U. S. C. § 5861(l) (making it unlawful "to make, or cause the making of, a false entry on any application, return, or record required by this chapter, knowing such entry to be false") (emphasis added). "[W]here Congress includes particular language in one section of a statute but omits it in another section of the same Act, it is generally presumed that Congress acts intentionally and purposely in the disparate inclusion or exclusion." Rodriguez v. United States, 480 U. S. 522, 525 (1987) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted); see also Lawrence County v. Lead-Deadwood School Dist. No. 40-1, 469 U. S. 256, 267-268 (1985).
22 United States v. Herbert, 698 F. 2d 981, 986-987 (CA9), cert. denied, 464 U. S. 821 (1983) (requiring the Government to prove knowledge of all the characteristics of a weapon only when no external signs indicated that the weapon was a "firearm"). Not until 1989 did a Court of Appeals adopt the view of the majority today. See United States v. Williams, 872 F. 2d 773 (CA6).
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