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Wilson: Upholding Conviction for Possession of Unregistered Sawed-off Shotgun

By Tim Cone

In United States v. Wilson, No. 17-12379 (Oct. 27, 2020) (Hull, William Pryor, Tjoflat), the Court affirmed the defendant?s conviction and sentence for possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun. First, the Court held that the district court had subject matter jurisdiction over the prosecution, holding that the National Firearms Act does not violate the Second or Tenth Amendments. Second, the Court held that the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction.  The Court clarified that the government was required to prove that the defendant was aware of any feature of the weapon that subjected it to registration.  Here, the evidence established that the defendant knew that his shotgun was either was less than 26 inches long or had a barrel of less than 18 inches, and that he knew it was not an antique...continue to full post

Full post as published by Defense Newsletter Blog on October 27, 2020 (boomark / email).