United States v. Shell’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

32 federal appellate · 1 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 43 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[T]he reduction provisions ... for felons in possession do not turn on the axiomatic truism that a felon can never lawfully possess a firearm. The entire reduction would clearly be subsumed in such a proposition. Rather, the availability of the reduction turns on the purpose or use for which the firearm is acquired or possessed and the lawfulness of such use if it were to be exercised by a citizen not under any legal disability — lawful hunting, lawful target practice, or lawful gun collecting.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Waggoner · 428 F. Supp. 2d 888 - United States v. Maas

2. “Both of the subject guideline provisions recognize that possession of a firearm is a physical fact and is always illegal if the possessor is a felon; but that in addition to the physical fact of possession there is the subjective quality of the possession, determined by the use intended by the possessor. This is better understood by recognizing that the sentencing levels established for the guidelines presume that when the person physically possessing the firearm is a felon the purpose or intended use is nefarious whether it be for armed robbery, aggravated assault, facilitating a drug transaction or the like. The guidelines nevertheless recognize the possibility that éven a felon’s acquisition or possession of a firearm , can be benign when the intended use of the gun is “solely” for one of two purposes that would be lawful were the possessor not a felon: either (1) sporting or recreational use, such as hunting, target practice or competition; or (2)' gun collecting — like hunting or target practice, a specialized use of a gun legitimately acquired or possessed. 1 The point of this analysis is to make clear that the reduction provisions of the guidelines for felons in possession do not turn on.the axiomatic truism that a felon can never lawfully possess a firearm. Rather, the availability of the reduction turns on the purpose or use for which the firearm is acquired or possessed and the lawfulness of such use if it were to be exercised by a citizen not under any legal disabi”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Collins

3. “The unavailability of the reduction in Pope stemmed not from the fact that felons cannot possess guns in a collection, but from the unlawful nature of the gun collection— one which included an unregistered silencer — because even a citizen free of all [legal] disabilities could not lawfully possess such a collection. The same would be true, for example, if the felon possessed a shotgun for the purpose of hunting wild turkey, but did so out of season, in an illegally baited area. As that would be an unlawful sporting possession by any citizen, the sporting purpose reduction would be unavailable to the convicted felon.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Waggoner