Cite as: 511 U. S. 600 (1994)
Stevens, J., dissenting
tion under § 5861(d),23 we may infer that Congress intended that interpretation to survive. See Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U. S. 575, 580 (1978).
In short, petitioner's knowledge that he possessed an item
that was sufficiently dangerous to alert him to the likelihood of regulation would have supported a conviction during the first half century of enforcement of this statute. Unless application of that standard to a particular case violates the Due Process Clause,24 it is the responsibility of Congress, not this Court, to amend the statute if Congress deems it unfair or unduly strict.
IV
On the premise that the purpose of the mens rea requirement is to avoid punishing people "for apparently innocent activity," Justice Ginsburg concludes that proof of knowledge that a weapon is " 'a dangerous device of a type as would alert one to the likelihood of regulation' " is not an adequate mens rea requirement, but that proof of knowledge that the weapon possesses " 'every last characteristic' " that subjects it to regulation is. Ante, at 622-623, and n. 5 (Ginsburg, J., concurring in judgment) (quoting the trial court's jury instruction).
23 See, e. g., United States v. Gonzalez, 719 F. 2d 1516, 1522 (CA11 1983), cert. denied, 465 U. S. 1037 (1984); Morgan v. United States, 564 F. 2d 803, 805-806 (CA8 1977); United States v. Cowper, 503 F. 2d 130, 132-133 (CA6 1974), cert. denied, 420 U. S. 930 (1975); United States v. DeBartolo, 482 F. 2d 312, 316 (CA1 1973); United States v. Vasquez, 476 F. 2d 730, 732 (CA5), cert. denied, 414 U. S. 836 (1973), overruled by United States v. Anderson, 885 F. 2d 1248 (CA5 1989) (en banc).
And, as I have already noted, United States v. Freed, 401 U. S. 601 (1971), was consistent with the Government's position here. Although the Government accepted the burden of proving that Freed knew that the item he possessed was a hand grenade, the possessor of an unfamiliar object such as a hand grenade would not know that it was "a dangerous item of a type likely to be subject to regulation," Brief for United States 16; see also id., at 20, 23, 24, unless he knew what it was.
24 Petitioner makes no such claim in this Court.
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