461 F.2d 656 - United States v. Tous — 461 F.2d 656

How this case has been cited

Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently September 2000

14 federal appellate · 1 district ·

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

¶1 *657Michael D. Nasatir, of Nasatir, Sherman & Hirsch, Beverly Hills, Cal., for defendant-appellant.

¶2William D. Keller, U. S. Atty., Eric A. Nobles, Leslie E. Osborne, Jr., Asst. U. S. Attys., Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiff-appellee.

¶3Before HAMLEY, CHOY and GOODWIN, Circuit Judges.

¶4PER CURIAM:

¶5This is an appeal from a conviction under 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d) (possessing an unregistered machine gun) and a sentence of one year’s probation. We affirm.

¶6 The first point asserts that a conviction cannot stand without evidence that the defendant received or transported the firearm through interstate commerce. Interstate activity, however, is not an element of the crime under 26 U.S.C. § 5861. The statute is silent on the score of commerce. It is a valid exercise of the power of Congress to tax. United States v. Giannini, 455 F.2d 147 (9th Cir. 1972).

¶7 The second point is that, be- • cause he was unaware of the statute’s amnesty and registration provision, the defendant was unable to comply with the registration clause of the statute. Ignorance o,f the statute’s amnesty provisions is no defense. Congress can impose upon those who keep machine guns a reasonable duty to inquire about the obligations that may accompany such possession. See United States v. Freed, 401 U.S. 601, 609-610, 91 S.Ct. 1112, 28 L.Ed.2d 356 (1971).

¶8Affirmed.