FIPOF – Definition of firearm

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FIPOF – Definition of firearm

A gun that was designed to be a gun, was never redesigned to be anything else, and is not so dilapidated as to be beyond repair, is a firearm under 18 U.S.C. 922.

“The government would be poorly served by the ‘once a gun, always a gun’ interpretation of ‘is designed’ that it flirts with—an interpretation that would read ‘is designed’ to mean ‘was originally designed.’ For toy guns are not infrequently redesigned to be real guns, Daniel Macht, ‘Man Converts Super Soaker Squirt Gun into Shotgun,’ NBCNews, May 23, 2012, http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/23/11834176-man-convertssuper-soaker-squirt-gun-into-shotgun (visited March 29, 2013); Diane Macedo, ‘Toy Gun Sold in U.S. Can Easily Be Converted to the Real Thing,’ Fox News, May 14, 2010, www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/06/exclusive-toy-gun-soldeasily-turned-real-thing (visited March 29, 2013), and surely the government doesn’t think that a felon who owns a gun that started life as a toy gun but now shoots real bullets can’t be convicted of being a felon in possession. The gun in this case, although in bad condition, neither was redesigned to be something other than a gun nor is so badly damaged that it can no longer be regarded as a weapon designed to fire bullets. And just as a very ill person can look entirely normal on the outside, the outward appearance of the defendant’s gun is normal. Designed to be a gun, never redesigned to be something else, not so dilapidated as to be beyond repair, the gun fits the statutory definition and the judgment must therefore be affirmed.”

Affirmed.

12-2945 U.S. v. Dotson

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Lawrence, J., Posner, J.

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