Cite as: 524 U. S. 184 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
tainly sufficient to establish a willful violation, it is not necessary—and nothing in § 922(b)(3) contradicts this basic distinction.33
V
One sentence in the trial court's instructions to the jury, read by itself, contained a misstatement of the law. In a portion of the instructions that were given after the correct statement that we have already quoted, the judge stated: "In this case, the government is not required to prove that the defendant knew that a license was required, nor is the government required to prove that he had knowledge that he was breaking the law." App. 19 (emphasis added). If the judge had added the words "that required a license," the sentence would have been accurate, but as given it was not.
Nevertheless, that error does not provide a basis for reversal for four reasons. First, petitioner did not object to that sentence, except insofar as he had argued that the jury should have been instructed that the Government had the burden of proving that he had knowledge of the federal licensing requirement. Second, in the context of the entire instructions, it seems unlikely that the jury was misled. See, e. g., United States v. Park, 421 U. S. 658, 674-675 (1975). Third, petitioner failed to raise this argument in the Court of Appeals. Finally, our grant of certiorari was limited to
33 Petitioner also argues that the statutory language—"willfully violates any other provision of this chapter"—indicates a congressional intent to attach liability only when a defendant possesses specific knowledge of the "provision[s] of [the] chapter." We rejected a similar argument in United States v. International Minerals & Chemical Corp., 402 U. S. 558 (1971). Although that case involved the word "knowingly" (in the phrase "knowingly violates any such regulation"), the response is the same:
"We . . . see no reason why the word 'regulations' [or the phrase 'any other provision of this chapter'] should not be construed as a shorthand designation for specific acts or omissions which violate the Act. The Act, so viewed, does not signal an exception to the rule that ignorance of the law is no excuse . . . ." Id., at 562.
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