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00-4180 U.S. v. Lane

By: dmc-admin//June 11, 2001//

00-4180 U.S. v. Lane

By: dmc-admin//June 11, 2001//

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“People who commit that offense may end up committing another, and violent, offense, such as robbing a bank at gunpoint, but that doesn’t make the possession offense violent. Otherwise we would have to say that the offense of driving a car without a license is a crime of violence because people who commit that offense are likely to drive when drunk, or to speed, or drive recklessly, or attempt to evade arrest. For that matter, the illegal sale of a gun, or perhaps of a knife or burglar tools, would on that analysis be a crime of violence. A crime that increases the likelihood of a crime of violence need not itself be a crime of violence. Bailey v. United States, 516 U.S. 137 (1995), is suggestive. The Supreme Court distinguished simple possession of a weapon from use in the sense of active use, limiting the statutory term “use” to the active variety. The active use of a gun is a crime of violence in a way that mere possession of it, even if criminal, is not.”

Motion denied without prejudice.

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