About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 1 (April 19, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govzki0001 and id is 1 raw text is: What You Don't Know Can't Hurt You: Supreme Court to Address Knowledge Requirement for Firearm Offenses April 19, 2019 Perhaps the most well-known aspect of the federal framework of firearm laws is the Gun Control Act's prohibition on the receipt or possession of guns by persons who fall into specific risk-related categories. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), convicted felons, fugitives from justice, aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and certain other persons are prohibited from possessing, receiving, shipping, or transporting in interstate commerce any firearms or ammunition. And a separate statutory provision subjects those who knowingly violate Section 922(g) to criminal penalties. Criminalizing only knowing statutory violations raises a deceptively simple question, however: to be guilty of a federal firearm-possession offense, must a person with a prohibited status simply know that he or she is possessing a gun, or must that person also know of his or her prohibited status under Section 922(g)? In other words, when prosecuting a violation of Section 922(g), does the government have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt only that a defendant knowingly possessed a firearm at a time when he or she fell into a prohibited category, or does the government have to prove that the defendant knowingly possessed a firearm and knew that he or she met the prohibiting criterion (e.g., requiring an alien to know that he or she was unlawfully present)? The courts of appeals that have considered the question have consistently adopted the narrower construction, concluding that the knowledge requirement extends to possession but not status under Section 922(g). But the Supreme Court is poised to take up the issue in Rehaifv. United States, and at least one Justice, Justice Gorsuch, has suggested prior to joining the Court that he would construe the knowledge requirement to apply more broadly. How the Court ultimately resolves the issue may depend on the importance the Court ascribes to recognizing state-of-mind requirements to avoid criminal punishment for unknowingly unlawful conduct, the underlying purpose of the statutes involved, and the weight of judicial precedent, among other things. This Sidebar provides an overview of Rehaifv. United States and briefly discusses the potentially broad implications of the case, as well as the options for Congress moving forward. Background of Rehaif: Hamid Mohamed Ahmed Ali Rehaif, a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, was admitted to the United States in 2013 on a student visa to study mechanical engineering at a university in Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10290 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most