The facts are largely undisputed. Because we must 1

decide whether Kitsch's version of the story would, if credited

by the jury, justify acquittal, we resolve any factual disputes

in his favor for purposes of this motion.

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : CRIMINAL ACTION

:

 v. :

:

WILLIAM KITSCH : NO. 03-594-01

MEMORANDUM

Dalzell, J. August 1, 2008

A Grand Jury five years ago charged William Kitsch in a

three count indictment alleging possession of firearms,

ammunition, and body armor by a convicted felon. By motion in

limine, Kitsch seeks leave to raise a defense of entrapment by

estoppel and to require the Government to prove scienter with

regard to his status as a felon. Because this case presents an

unusual, perhaps unique, factual scenario, especially in light of

the Supreme Court's recent decision in Dist. of Columbia v.

Heller, 128 S. Ct. 2783 (2008), we address these issues at some

length.

I. Facts1

In 1988 and 1989, Kitsch was cooperating with law

enforcement officials in Atlantic County, New Jersey in an

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 1 of 27
2

investigation against a man named Dino Starn who was, among other

things, growing marijuana in a barn on his property. As a means

of helping the narcotics officer with whom he was working obtain

evidence against Starn, Kitsch set a small, smoky fire on the

windowsill of the barn and then promptly called the fire

department. When the fire department arrived, it found the

marijuana growing in the barn and Starn was later charged.

As a result of the fire, Kitsch was charged with thirddegree arson, a felony under both New Jersey and federal law. He

pled guilty to the state offense after meeting with law

enforcement officials who told him they would set aside the

conviction and Kitsch could live as though the event had never

happened. Although he served a thirty-day custodial sentence on

Sundays, Kitsch avers that he truly and reasonably believed that

his conviction had either been set aside or expunged.

Kitsch was also sentenced to two years' probation. 

When he initially reported to the probation department he was

told that the department would contact him to assign him a

probation officer and tell him when and where to report. When

the probation department did not contact him again, Kitsch took

this as confirmation of his understanding that his conviction had

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 2 of 27
 During the time of his custodial sentence and 2

probation, he was ineligible to vote under New Jersey law. N.J.

Stat. Ann. § 19:4-1. Kitsch does not specifically aver that he

voted during this period, but since the sentence lasted more than

two years he would certainly have had the opportunity to do so.

3

indeed been set aside. Kitsch continued to vote and exercise 2

other incidents of citizenship without restriction.

At some later date, Kitsch decided to begin collecting

firearms. He contacted Theodore Beck, a federally licensed

firearms dealer whom he had known for many years. He told Beck

that there was legal trouble in his past, but that he believed it

had been set aside. Beck ran a search for Kitsch in his

computerized database and found no prior criminal record. This

finding again reinforced Kitsch's good faith belief that his

conviction had been set aside and that his record was now clean. 

In reliance on this information, Kitsch began purchasing firearms

from Beck and from other federally licensed dealers. At no time

did any dealer find anything during a background check that

disqualified Kitsch from purchasing a firearm.

In 2003, the Secret Service began investigating a

posting Kitsch made in an Internet chat room where he suggested

that if the National Security Agency could take out Osama Bin

Laden, it could perhaps do the same to Bill Clinton. In

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 3 of 27
 To be precise, agents found a 7.62x39mm Romanian SAR- 3

1 rifle, a 7.62x39mm Romanian WASR-10 rifle, a 12-gauge Mossberg

shotgun with pistol grip, a .22 caliber Remington semi-automatic

rife, a .22 caliber Henry Survival semi-automatic rifle, a 9mm

Glock semi-automatic pistol, two .357 magnum caliber Smith &

Wesson revolvers, a .25 caliber Fraser semi-automatic pistol, a

9mm Walther semi-automatic pistol, and a .32 caliber Beretta

semi-automatic pistol. They also found 153 rounds of .38 caliber

ammunition, 1,048 rounds of 9mm ammunition, 70 rounds of .357

caliber ammunition, 249 rounds of .32 caliber ammunition, 6

rounds of .25 caliber ammunition, 20 rounds of 5.56 ammunition,

108 12-gauge shotgun shells, 981 rounds of .223 caliber

ammunition, 5,934 rounds of 7.62x39mm ammunition, and 11,573

rounds of .22 caliber ammunition.

4

following up on the posting, Secret Service agents came to meet

with Kitsch. During a meeting at his home in May of 2003, Kitsch

voluntarily surrendered a handgun he was carrying, which was

given back to him after the meeting. Kitsch also informed the

agents about his gun collection. During the subsequent

investigation, federal agents determined that Kitsch was a

convicted felon. In August of 2003, agents returned to Kitsch's

house with a search warrant and seized many firearms, a great

deal of ammunition, and body armor. 

3

II. Analysis

A. Scienter

Kitsch first asks us to examine the scienter 

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 4 of 27
5

requirement for a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The

statute says, in relevant part:

It shall be unlawful for any person ... who

has been convicted in any court of, a crime

punishable by imprisonment for a term

exceeding one year ... to ship or transport

in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess

in or affecting commerce, any firearm or

ammunition; or to receive any firearm or

ammunition which has been shipped or

transported in interstate or foreign

commerce.

The statute does not include any conviction "which has been

expunged, or set aside or for which a person has been pardoned or

has had civil rights restored." 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20). The

operative statute contains no explicit scienter provision.

In 1986, Congress enacted the Firearms Owners'

Protection Act ("FOPA"), Pub. L. 99-308, 100 Stat. 449. Although

FOPA did not add a scienter requirement to the operative

provision, it did modify the related penalty provision, 18 U.S.C.

§ 924(a)(2), adding the word "knowingly." As modified, Section

924(a)(2) now reads, "Whoever knowingly violates subsection

(a)(6), (d), (g), (h), (i), (j), or (o) of section 922 shall be

fined as provided in this title, imprisoned not more than 10

years, or both."

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 5 of 27
 Although the statute refers to "a crime punishable by 4

imprisonment for a term exceeding one year," we will, for

purposes of simplicity, use the more common locution "felony" as

a shorthand for the statutory definition and will refer to one

who has such a conviction on his or her record as a "felon."

 We will use the two terms interchangeably. 5

6

The issue before us, then, is how to interpret the word

"knowingly" in Section 924(a)(2). The Government contends that

only the possession of the firearm must be knowing, while Kitsch

contends that the scienter requirement must also apply to the

existence of a prior felony conviction. 4

As the starting point of our analysis, we look at the

Supreme Court's recent jurisprudence dealing with when scienter

or mens rea should be implied. 5

In United States v. Staples, 511 U.S. 600 (1994), the

Supreme Court addressed the existence of a scienter requirement

in 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d), which criminalizes the possession of a

"machine gun." At issue was whether Section 5861(d) required the

Government to prove that the defendant knew the firearm had the

characteristics that made it a "machine gun" under the statute. 

Justice Thomas, writing for the majority, noted that "offenses

that require no mens rea generally are disfavored" and that "some

indication of congressional intent, express or implied, is

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 6 of 27
7

required to dispense with mens rea as an element of a crime." 

Id. at 606 (internal citations omitted). Examining the

situations in which courts have allowed criminal sanctions to

attach in the absence of scienter, the Court "ha[s] reasoned that

as long as a defendant knows that he is dealing with a dangerous

device of a character that places him 'in responsible relation to

a public danger,' he should be alerted to the probability of

strict regulation" and is therefore under a burden to determine

the nature of that regulation. Id. at 607 (quoting United States

v. Dotterweich, 320 U.S. 277, 281 (1943)). Staples dismissed the

Government's contention that all guns were dangerous devices of

this sort, finding that "there is a long tradition of widespread

lawful gun ownership by private individuals in this county," and

therefore "[g]uns in general are not 'deleterious devices or

products or obnoxious waste materials' that put their owners on

notice" of the sort of regulation that Dotterweich contemplated. 

Id. at 610-11 (quoting United States v. Int'l Minerals & Chem

Corp., 402 U.S. 558, 565 (1971)). Finally, Staples noted that

the severity of the punishment -- like the charges against

Kitsch, Section 5861(d) carries a maximum penalty of ten years'

imprisonment -- was further evidence that Congress did not intend

to dispense with a mens rea requirement. Id. at 618-19. Thus,

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 7 of 27
8

because of the strict penalty and the observation that

"dispensing with mens rea would require the defendant to have

knowledge only of traditionally lawful conduct," Id. at 618, the

Court found that Congress intended to require scienter with

regard to the characteristics of the firearm.

While Staples dealt only with an issue of statutory

construction, United States v. X-Citement Video, Inc., 513 U.S.

64 (1994), decided early the following term, adds a

constitutional dimension to the analysis. In X-Citement Video,

the statute at issue, 18 U.S.C. § 2252, prohibited the sending or

receiving of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually

explicit conduct. Although the statute contained the word

"knowingly," the placement of that word seemed to imply that,

while the transportation or receipt had to be knowing, the

defendant did not have to know that the visual depictions

involved minors. The Ninth Circuit, finding that there was no

scienter requirement as to the age of the performers in the

videos, had struck down the statute as a violation of the First

Amendment. United States v. X-Citement Video, Inc., 982 F.2d

1285 (9th Cir. 1992).

The Supreme Court again examined the presumption that

"some form of scienter is to be implied in a criminal statute

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 8 of 27
9

even if not expressed" and, because of the added constitutional

dimension, the canon of construction that "a statute is to be

construed where fairly possible so as to avoid substantial

constitutional questions." X-Citement Video, 513 U.S. at 69. 

The Court read Staples and its antecedents as "instruct[ing] that

the presumption in favor of a scienter requirement should apply

to each of the statutory elements that criminalize otherwise

innocent conduct." Id. at 72. Because "the age of the

performers is the crucial element separating legal innocence from

wrongful conduct," the Court found a strong presumption in favor

of a scienter requirement as to that element. Id. at 73.

This presumption was further heightened by the

constitutional element. Because "a statute completely bereft of

a scienter requirement as to the age of the performers would

raise serious constitutional doubts," the Court found it

"incumbent upon us to read the statute to eliminate those doubts

so long as such a reading is not plainly contrary to the intent

of Congress." Id. at 78.

We take three major lessons from Staples and X-Citement

Video. First, where a particular element of a criminal statute

separates criminal conduct from otherwise lawful conduct, there

is a presumption, rebuttable only by clear evidence of

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 9 of 27
10

congressional intent, that a scienter requirement should attach

to that element. Second, where the potential criminal penalties

for violation of the statute are severe, that presumption is

heightened. Finally, where the lack of a scienter requirement

would raise serious doubts about the constitutionality of a

criminal statute, we should read the statute as containing such a

requirement unless that reading is contrary to the statute's

plain terms. With those teachings in mind, we now examine the

particular statute at issue here.

Two appellate cases have addressed the scienter

requirement of Section 922(g)(1) in the context of Staples and XCitement Video. In United States v. Langley, 62 F.3d 602 (4th

Cir. 1995) (en banc), the defendant challenged his conviction

under Section 922(g)(1) on the basis that the district court had

failed to instruct the jury that the Government was required to

prove that defendant knew he was a convicted felon. The Court of

Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found that no scienter requirement

existed with regard to that element and affirmed. The court

began its analysis, not with Staples and X-Citement Video, which

had very recently been decided, but with the observation that

"absent a clear manifestation of contrary intent, a newly-enacted

or revised statute is presumed to be harmonious with existing law

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 10 of 27
11

and its judicial construction." Id. at 605 (quoting Estate of

Wood v. C.I.R., 909 F.2d 1155, 1160 (8th Cir. 1990)). Because

"no court prior to FOPA required the government to prove

knowledge of felony status ... under § 922(g)(1)'s predecessor

statutes," the Langley majority found that no scienter

requirement should be read into that element absent clear

congressional intent. Id. The court then examined the

legislative history and found "no suggestion that Congress

intended to dispense with the judicial interpretation of §

922(g)(1)'s predecessor statutes." Id. While acknowledging that

it is "far from clear ... exactly what Congress intended to

modify in each section of 922," the majority concluded that "[a]t

most ... Congress intended to avoid the prosecution of

'unintentional missteps.'" Id. (quoting United States v.

Obiechie, 38 F.3d 309, 312 (7th Cir. 1994)). The Fourth Circuit

majority found that "the act of possessing a firearm by a felon

does not fall into the class of 'unintentional missteps'

envisioned by Congress when it enacted FOPA." Id. at 606

(quoting Obiechie 38 F.3d at 312). Finally, the majority

distinguished Staples and X-Citement Video, finding that "a

person who pleads guilty to, or is convicted by jury of, a felony

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 11 of 27
 We need not scrutinize the other case to reach this 6

issue, United States v. Capps, 77 F.3d 350 (10th Cir. 1996) since

it closely follows the analysis in Langley and reaches an

identical result.

12

cannot, thereafter, reasonably expect to be free from regulation

when possessing a firearm." Id. at 607.6

As we read Staples and X-Citement Video, where an

element of a statute has the effect of making otherwise lawful

conduct a criminal offense -- as, for example, the status of

being a felon in the case of Section 922(g)(1) -- our analysis

must begin with the presumption that the element includes a

scienter requirement. See Staples, 511 U.S. at 618-19; XCitement Video, 513 U.S. at 72. Langley takes the opposite

approach and begins with a presumption that there is no scienter

requirement on the basis of judicial constructions of the

predecessor statute. The majority in Langley assumed that

Congress legislated with thorough knowledge of the jurisprudence

surrounding the statutes being modified. Langley apparently

assumes, however, that Congress ignored "the familiar proposition

that '[t]he existence of a mens rea is the rule of, rather than

the exception to, the principles of Anglo-American criminal

jurisprudence,'" United States v. U.S. Gypsum Co., 438 U.S. 422,

436 (1978) (quoting Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494, 500

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 12 of 27
 Three other judges joined Judge Phillips's opinion. 7

13

(1951)), and the so-called Morissette presumption, see Morissette

v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 271 (1952), that mens rea extends

to elements that take otherwise lawful conduct and subject it to

criminal sanction. We do not think this depiction of Congress'

knowledge is plausible or that it is consistent with the Supreme

Court's jurisprudence. Further, by taking earlier judicial

constructions of the predecessor statutes as its starting point,

Langley ignores the possibility that those constructions were

inconsistent with Staples and X-Citement Video and that those

decisions abrogated them.

Rather, we find ourselves far more persuaded by Judge

Phillips's tour de force in partial concurrence with the Langley

majority. Judge Phillips notes that the presumption that mens 7

rea applies "runs not only to those elements that define the core

conduct proscribed but also to any elements that define

circumstances upon which criminality of the conduct turns." 62

F.3d 602, 614 (Phillips, J., concurring and dissenting). The

Supreme Court has consistently been unwilling to find sufficient

contrary intent to overcome that presumption either in

congressional silence or in ambiguous statutory text or

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 13 of 27
14

legislative history. Id. at 615 (citing Staples, 511 U.S. at

606; X-Citement Video, 513 U.S. at 77-78). Judge Phillips then

embarks on a detailed reading of the legislative history --

comparing the different versions of FOPA that were introduced in

the 96th through 99th Congresses -- and finds in them no

indication that Congress had a clear intent to exclude the

defendant's criminal history status from the scienter

requirement. Id. at 615-17. As Judge Phillips observes, the

primary item of legislative history the Government proffered in

favor of its reading of the statute applied to an earlier version

of FOPA that significantly differed from the version ultimately

adopted. Id. at 616-17. At the end of his analysis, Judge

Phillips finds -- as do we -- no principled distinction between

the mens rea requirement in the felon-in-possession statute and

those at issue in Morissette, Liparota v. United States, 471 U.S.

419 (1985), Staples, and X-Citement Video.

Even if we found the Langley majority's analysis

convincing -- and, to be explicit, we do not -- we would also

have to address the factual differences between that case and

Kitsch's. In Langley, the defendant had no basis for claiming

that he lacked knowledge of his status as a convicted felon. His

claim was only that the district court erred in failing to

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 14 of 27
 Although it is a "deeply rooted" element of American 8

jurisprudence that "ignorance of the law or a mistake of law is

no defense to criminal prosecution," Cheek v. United States, 498

U.S. 192, 199 (1991), Kitsch appears to have been keenly aware of

the portions of the federal firearms laws relevant to him.

15

instruct the jury that it had to find such knowledge. Indeed,

Judge Phillips's concurring and dissenting opinion would have

affirmed on the basis that the district court's error in failing

to give the instruction was harmless. Langley, 62 F.3d at 619. 

Here, by contrast, Kitsch has plausibly averred that he

reasonably believed that his conviction had been expunged or set

aside and was, therefore, not a conviction for purposes of the

statute. Thus, Kitsch presents us with the very defendant the 8

Langley majority thought could not exist: one who is a felon

within the statutory definition but has no reason to believe that

he is subject to additional regulation. Indeed, the Langley

majority's finding that "a person who pleads guilty to, or is

convicted by jury of, a felony cannot, thereafter, reasonably

expect to be free from regulation when possessing a firearm," id.

at 607, assumes the very fact in issue. Only a knowing felon can

reasonably expect to be subject to additional regulation. While

the class of people who have been convicted of a felony, but to

whom knowledge of that fact cannot be imputed, is small, the

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 15 of 27
 In his brief, Kitsch also posits that defendants with 9

traumatic brain injuries or strokes might find themselves in this

category. Def. Br. at 4.

16

facts averred in this case demonstrate that it is not nonexistent.9

Because the universe of scenarios is limited in which

knowledge of the defendant's status as a felon can plausibly be

contested, it is not surprising that Kitsch cannot cite to a case

in which a court has applied the scienter requirement he seeks. 

The cases the parties cite in which this issue has been addressed

fall into two categories. Most of them, like Langley, involve

defendants who have no plausible claim to lack of knowledge but

nonetheless claim that the jury instructions were defective

because they failed to require the jury to find scienter as to

the prior conviction. It is not surprising that the argument

finds little purchase under those conditions and frequently, as

Judge Phillips did in Langley, courts have found that any error

caused by failure to instruct on scienter would be harmless. A

few of the cases involve the question of whether a restoration of

civil rights to a felon is sufficient to trigger the saving

provision of 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20). See, e.g., United States v.

Estrella, 104 F.3d 3 (1st Cir. 1997). Because such cases

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 16 of 27
 In most of these cases, as in Estrella, the 10

restoration comes by dint of statute rather than some further

proceeding. It is, therefore, entirely possible that a

defendant, understanding completely his factual situation, could

be mistaken as to whether such a restoration had occurred by

operation of law.

17

typically involve intricate questions about the restoration of

civil rights under state law, they have generally involved not a

defendant's mistake of fact as to his prior conviction but rather

a mistake of law as to the nature of the restoration. As we 10

noted above, mistake of law is generally not a defense and so

these cases did not need to reach the more difficult questions we

face here.

It is for this reason that the Government's claim that

felon-in-possession is a "general intent crime," see Gov't Br. at

4, is not dispositive. To be sure, our Court of Appeals has

referred to a violation of Section 922(g) as "a crime of general

intent." United States v. Williams, 892 F.2d 296, 303 (3d Cir.

1989). That portion of Williams, however, dealt with an attempt

by the defendant to negate his mens rea with regard to the

possession element based on voluntary intoxication. Thus, the

only finding in Williams for which the general intent nature of

the crime is a predicate is "[f]or general intent crimes,

evidence of voluntary intoxication is not an acceptable method of

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 17 of 27
18

negating the required intent." Id. That is clearly not relevant

here.

Our Court of Appeals has most recently described the

distinction between general and specific intent as: "Specific

intent requires not simply the general intent to accomplish an

act with no particular end in mind, but the additional deliberate

and conscious purpose of accomplishing a specific and prohibited

result." Pierre v. Attorney General, 528 F.3d 180, 189 (3d Cir.

2008) (en banc). It is, therefore, unsurprising that our Court

of Appeals has described Section 922(g)(1) as a general intent

crime since nothing in the statute could reasonably be read to

require the "deliberate and conscious purpose of accomplishing a

specific and prohibited result." Under this definition, the

machine gun statute at issue in Staples would also properly be

described as a "general intent" crime. That does not, however,

mean that no mens rea requirement attaches to circumstance

elements that must accompany the prohibited act.

In United States v. Weiler, 458 F.2d 474 (3d Cir.

1972), the defendant was accused of violating Section 922(g)(1)

and requested jury instructions requiring the Government to prove

both that he knew he had been convicted of a felony and that the

gun was capable of expelling a projectile, i.e. that it met the

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 18 of 27
 Even had Weiler adopted such a blanket rule, that 11

would not necessarily be dispositive here because Weiler predates

Staples, X-Citement Video, and, of course, Heller.

19

statutory definition of a "firearm". The Court found that "[t]he

general instruction with respect to intent and mistake or

accident was all the defendant was entitled to on this point in

the absence of any evidence supporting the particularized

theories contained in the two requested instructions." Id. at

475. Were it the case, as the Government contends, that no

scienter requirement ever attaches to the prior felony conviction

element, Weiler would properly have been disposed of by such a

blanket rule. Instead, however, the Court determined that he 11

was not entitled to the instructions because he had presented no

evidence supporting a theory that he lacked such scienter. The

clear implication of that ruling is that, under at least some

other factual circumstances, such an instruction might be

required. If any facts could ever require such an instruction,

what Kitsch avers here must be sufficient to do so.

Finally, even were we not to find that Staples alone

provides sufficient support for granting Kitsch's motion, we

would have to address the constitutional questions raised by the

Supreme Court's decision just over a month ago in Heller. 

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 19 of 27
 Heller did not address the precise degree of 12

scrutiny required in such cases because it found that the law at

issue would be unconstitutional "[u]nder any of the standards of

scrutiny that we have applied to enumerated constitutional

rights." Id. at 2817.

20

In Heller, the Court found for the first time that the

Second Amendment "guarantee[s] the individual right to possess

and carry weapons in case of confrontation." 128 S. Ct. at 2797. 

The Court acknowledged that long-standing limitations on the

ownership and use of weapons, including Section 922(g)(1), were

consistent with that guarantee. Id. at 2816-17. Nevertheless,

because the Constitution directly guarantees the right, such

limitations are subject to some level of increased scrutiny.12

As Justice Scalia put it for the Court, "[t]he very enumeration

of the right takes out of the hands of government -- even the

Third Branch of Government -- the power to decide on a case-bycase basis whether the right is really worth insisting upon." 

Id. at 2821.

A statute that imposes criminal penalties for the

exercise of an enumerated constitutional right despite

defendant's reasonable belief in good faith that he has complied

with the law must, at the very least, raise constitutional

doubts. Post-Heller, the Government's desired construction of

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 20 of 27
 Kitsch does not contend that any scienter 13

requirement should apply to the interstate commerce element,

which, as Judge Phillips notes in Langley, is purely

jurisdictional. 62 F.3d at 619.

21

Section 922(g)(1) imposes just such a burden on defendants who,

for whatever reason, reasonably believe that they are not felons

within the statutory definition. Faced with a statute that

raises this sort of doubt, it is "incumbent upon us to read the

statute to eliminate those doubts so long as such a reading is

not plainly contrary to the intent of Congress." X-Citement

Video, 513 U.S. at 78 (citing Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. v Florida

Gulf Coast Bldg. & Constr. Trades Council, 485 U.S. 568, 575

(1988)). 

Here, the construction that we adopt -- which we would

have done pre-Heller -- has the added benefit of avoiding

potential doubts post-Heller about the statute's

constitutionality, at least as applied to Kitsch. Accordingly,

we find that the word "knowingly" in 18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(2), when

applied to the offense in 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1), modifies both the

elements of possession of the firearm and the status as a

convicted felon. We will therefore grant defendant's motion as 13

to this issue and will instruct the jury that, in order to

convict Kitsch, the Government must prove beyond a reasonable

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 21 of 27
22

doubt that he knew or was willfully blind to the fact that he had

a prior felony conviction that had not been set aside or

expunged.

B. Entrapment by Estoppel

Kitsch also seeks to present a defense of entrapment by

estoppel. "This defense arises when a government official tells

a defendant that certain conduct is legal and the defendant

commits what otherwise would be a crime in reasonable reliance on

the official representation." United States v. Pitt, 193 F.3d

751, 758 (3d Cir. 1999). A defendant who raises this defense

must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that: "(1) a

government official (2) told the defendant that certain criminal

conduct was legal, (3) the defendant actually relied on the

government official's statements, (4) and the defendant's

reliance was in good faith and reasonable in light of the

identity of the government official, the point of law

represented, and the substance of the official's statement." 

United States v. Stewart, 185 F.3d 112, 124 (3d Cir. 1999)

(quoting United States v. West Indies Transp., Inc., 127 F.3d

299, 313 (3d Cir. 1997)).

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 22 of 27
23

Kitsch bases his claim on the statements of Theodore

Beck, a federal firearms licensee ("FFL") and an acquaintance of

Kitsch's. The primary contested issue with regard to the defense

in this case is whether an FFL is a government official for

purposes of the entrapment by estoppel defense. The Model Penal

Code provision restricts the defense to reliance on "an official

interpretation of the public officer or body charged by law with

responsibility for the interpretation, administration or

enforcement of the law defining the offense." MPC §

2.04(3)(b)(iv). Kitsch argues that Beck, as an FFL, meets that

definition because he is "authorized by the federal government to

gather and dispense information in regards to the purchase of

firearms" and is "statutorily mandated to fulfill several

requirements when executing the sale of a firearm." Def. Br. at

7.

Although our Court of Appeals has not, several other

Circuits have addressed the question of whether an FFL is a

government official for purposes of this defense. Of these, only

the Ninth Circuit, in a divided decision, has found that an FFL

can be a government official for the purposes of an entrapment by

estoppel defense. In United States v. Tallmadge, 829 F.2d 767,

774 (9th Cir. 1987), the majority found that the Government has

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 23 of 27
24

given FFLs "the affirmative duty of inquiring of a prospective

buyer whether he has a criminal record that would make it

unlawful for him to purchase a firearm" and has required them "to

inform buyers concerning the restrictions imposed by Congress on

the purchase of firearms." Based on that finding, the majority

concluded that "[c]learly, the United States Government has made

licensed firearms dealers federal agents in connection with the

gathering and dispensing of information on the purchase of

firearms." Id.

Judge Kozinski vigorously dissented, finding that "the

statements on which the majority relies as the basis of the

estoppel were uttered by someone who is not even a federal

employee, much less an official authorized to speak for the

government." Id. at 777 (Kozinski, J., dissenting). Judge

Kozinski pungently added, "[a] gun dealer is not a government

official; he is a private individual whose economic interest lies

in consummating the transaction, not scotching it. Had Tallmadge

wanted an authoritative interpretation of the applicable law, he

could well have written to the Department of the Treasury, Bureau

of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, whose name and address is

inscribed on the Firearms Transaction Record he was required to

fill out." Id. at 778.

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 24 of 27
25

Every other court of appeals to address the issue has

found that an FFL is not a government official for this purpose. 

See United States v. Hardridge, 379 F.3d 1188, 1193 (10th Cir.

2004) (finding that FFLs "cannot provide an authoritative

interpretation of what the law requires"); United States v.

Howell, 37 F.3d 1197, 1206 (7th Cir. 1994) (finding that an FFL's

"license to sell firearms does not transform him into a

government official"); United States v. Billue, 994 F.2d 1562,

1569 (11th Cir. 1993) ("[A] federal license to sell firearms does

not transform private licensees into government officials,

thereby creating a potential entrapment by estoppel defense.");

United States v. Austin, 915 F.2d 363, 366-67 (8th Cir. 1990)

("Despite the affirmative duty Congress has imposed upon

federally licensed firearms dealers to enforce federal firearms

laws at the point of sale, we cannot agree that this role, or

their federal license to sell firearms, is sufficient to

transform them into government officials, at least for purposes

of the entrapment by estoppel defense.") (internal quotations

omitted).

We find more persuasive Judge Kozinski's dissent and

the rulings of the other circuits. Although FFLs have a

significant role to play in the enforcement of federal firearms

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 25 of 27
26

laws, that does not make them government officials whose

interpretations of the law should bind the Government. The mere

fact that regulations on the sale of particular items give some

enforcement responsibilities to private sellers does not make

them government officials. Were it otherwise, pharmacists,

liquor store clerks, and in some states gas station attendants --

see, e.g., N.J. Stat. Ann. § 34:3A-6, 3A-7 (prohibiting

dispensing of fuel by one who is not a gas station attendant and

requiring gas station attendants to enforce that prohibition) --

would all be government officials whose interpretations of law

are binding on public law enforcement. We do not think such an

interpretation is consistent with the limited scope of the

entrapment by estoppel defense.

Because we find that Theodore Beck was not a government

official for purposes of the entrapment by estoppel defense,

Kitsch is not entitled to a jury instruction on that defense.

BY THE COURT:

/s/ Stewart Dalzell, J. 

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 26 of 27
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : CRIMINAL ACTION

:

 v. :

:

WILLIAM KITSCH : NO. 03-594-01

ORDER

AND NOW, this 1st day of August, 2008, upon

consideration of Kitsch's motion in limine (docket entry # 101),

the Government's response (docket entry # 111), and Kitsch's

reply (docket entry # 115) and for the reasons set forth in the

accompanying Memorandum, it is hereby ORDERED that Kitsch's

motion is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART as detailed in the

Memorandum.

BY THE COURT:

/s/ Stewart Dalzell, J. 

Case 2:03-cr-00594-SD Document 116 Filed 08/01/08 Page 27 of 27