[PUBLISH]

In the

United States Court of Appeals

For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 20-11035

____________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee,

versus

CHRISTOPHER DANIEL STINES, 

Defendant-Appellant.

____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Southern District of Florida

D.C. Docket No. 1:19-cr-20566-JEM-1

____________________

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2 Opinion of the Court 20-11035

Before WILSON, LUCK, and LAGOA, Circuit Judges.

WILSON, Circuit Judge:

In this sentencing appeal, we interpret U.S.S.G. 

§ 2M5.2(a)(2) for the first time in a published decision. That subsection sets a lower base offense level for defendants convicted of

illegally exporting weapons if the offense involved only non-fully 

automatic small arms and there were no more than two weapons. 

The question here is whether a defendant who exports enough

weapons parts for two operable firearms, along with additional 

partsto service additional firearms, can take advantage of the lower 

base offense level. After careful review, and with the benefit of oral 

argument, we answer that question in the negative. Such an offense involves more than the two weapons § 2M5.2(a)(2) allows. 

We therefore affirm.

I 

One late-summer day in 2019, Christopher Stines, a Haitian 

gunsmith, arrived at Miami International Airport. He was scheduled to take Air France Flight 619 to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As it 

turned out, United States Customs and Border Protection agents 

were conducting an outbound border search that day. When the 

agents searched Stines’s luggage, they found 23 AR-15 parts: eight 

triggers, five selector switches, three hammers, two disconnectors, 

three hammer and trigger pins, and two trigger guards. These 

parts are designated “defense articles” by the United States 

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20-11035 Opinion of the Court 3

Munitions List, and they cannot be exported from the United States 

without an export license. Stines did not have an export license.

The authorities detained Stines for questioning. After waiving his Miranda rights, Stines agreed to speak with agents from 

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). He told the agents that 

he had purchased weapons only a few times through various websites. A search of his iPhone, however, cast doubt on that claim. 

The email account on Stines’s iPhone contained more than 20 invoices for purchases of weapons parts dating back to 2012. An HSI 

agent inquired whether Stines had exported these parts, but Stines 

did not respond, and the agent ended the interview. Federal law 

enforcement conducted a follow-up investigation and found that 

Stines had purchased hundreds of weapons parts between 2013 and 

2019. He had those parts shipped to the residence of his aunt and 

uncle in Homestead, Florida.

The government filed an indictment charging Stines with 

smuggling goods from the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 

554(a) (Count One), and with attempting to unlawfully export defense articles in violation of 22 U.S.C. § 2778(b)(2) and (c) (Count 

Two). Stines pleaded guilty to Count One in exchange for the government dismissing Count Two.

Following the guilty plea, the United States Probation Office 

prepared a presentence investigation report (PSI). The PSI explained that a probation officer had confirmed with the government that the 23 weapons parts seized from Stines “were not capable of being converted to more than two firearms.” But the PSI

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4 Opinion of the Court 20-11035

also stated that when considering all the weapons parts Stines had 

purchased since 2013, those parts could be converted to at least 

four firearms. The PSI then calculated Stines’s base offense level as 

26, pursuant to § 2M5.2(a)(1) of the United States Sentencing 

Guidelines. After a three-point reduction for acceptance of responsibility and assisting authorities, Stines’s total offense level was 23. 

With a criminal history category of I, his recommended Guidelines

range was 46–57 months.

Stines objected to the PSI, arguing that, pursuant to § 

2M5.2(a)(2), his base offense level should have been 14 rather than 

26 because the weapons parts that were seized could be converted 

to only two functional weapons. He also filed a motion for a downward departure. At the sentencing hearing, the district court overruled Stines’s objection and denied his motion for a downward departure. Although the district court did not explicitly address 

Stines’s objection to his base offense level, it explained its reasoning 

for denying the downward departure. The district court observed

that Stines appeared to have been working in concert with the Haitian police force, who were engaged “in fire-fights with the Haitian 

Army.” Noting the “extremely volatile political situation” in Haiti, 

the court found that Stines’s conduct affected the foreign policy interests of the United States, which militated against granting a 

downward departure. Accordingly, the court sentenced Stines to 

46 months’ imprisonment and two years of supervised release—a 

sentence at the low end of the Guidelines range.

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20-11035 Opinion of the Court 5

II 

On appeal, Stines argues that the district court erred in overruling his objection to his base offense level. He also contends that 

the district court should have granted a downward departure from 

the Sentencing Guidelines. We address those contentions in turn.

A 

We review de novo the district court’s interpretation and 

application of the Sentencing Guidelines, and we review its underlying factual findings for clear error. United States v. Maddox, 803 

F.3d 1215, 1220 (11th Cir. 2015) (per curiam). “When interpreting 

the guidelines, we apply the ‘traditional rules of statutory construction[.]’” United States v. Fulford, 662 F.3d 1174, 1177 (11th Cir. 

2011) (quoting United States v. Shannon, 631 F.3d 1187, 1189 (11th 

Cir. 2011)). The Guideline at issue, § 2M5.2,“Exportation of Arms, 

Munitions, or Military Equipment or Services Without Required 

Validated Export License,” provides:

(a) Base Offense Level:

(1) 26, except as provided in subdivision (2) below;

(2) 14, if the offense involved only (A) non-fully 

automatic small arms (rifles, handguns, or 

shotguns), and the number of weapons did not 

exceed two, (B) ammunition for non-fully automatic small arms, and the number of rounds 

did not exceed 500, or (C) both.

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6 Opinion of the Court 20-11035

U.S.S.G. § 2M5.2.

Stines does not contest that his offense involved the exportation of weapons parts and thus falls under the umbrella of

§ 2M5.2(a). He argues, however, that his offense fits within 

§ 2M5.2(a)(2)(A)’s carveout for less serious offenses.

To that end, Stines makes two arguments. First, he argues

that his relevant conduct for sentencing purposes encompasses

only the 23 AR-15 parts that were seized at the airport and with 

which he was charged. Although the government produced invoices showing that Stines purchased hundreds of weapons parts 

over the last decade, Stines argues that purchasing weapons parts 

is not by itself criminal activity. Without a showing that Stines exported those parts, the argument goes, the purchases are not relevant conduct for sentencing purposes. The government does not 

meaningfully dispute this point in its brief. Second—and building 

on his first argument—Stines contends that his offense for exportation of 23 weapons parts is an “offense involv[ing] only [ ] non-fully 

automatic small arms,” where “the number of weapons did not exceed two.” See § 2M5.2(a)(2)(A). That is so, he argues, because the 

23 weapons parts could be converted to no more than two fullyfunctioning AR-15s. As a result, he says that he was entitled to the 

lower base offense level of 14 under § 2M5.2(a)(2). The government does not dispute that AR-15s are non-fully automatic small 

arms, but it argues that Stines’s offense cannot qualify for the lower 

base offense level because the carveout does not apply to offenses 

involving firearm parts. 

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20-11035 Opinion of the Court 7

Resolution of this case does not require us to decide whether 

Stines is correct on the first point because, for the reasons explained 

below, he cannot qualify for the lower base offense level even assuming his offense involved only 23 weapons parts.

As a starting point, we must consider whether subsection 

(a)(2) can ever apply to an offense like Stines’s that involves AR-15

parts. We think it can for a simple reason: the Guidelines do not 

purport to distinguish between assembled and disassembled weapons. At least in theory, then, an offense involving nothing more 

than the parts of two AR-15s—that is, two AR-15s broken down to 

their components—could fit within the scope of § 2M5.2(a)(2). 

This view is supported by the fact that appellate courts, including this Court, have equated “weaponry” with component 

parts for weaponry, when interpreting prior versions of § 2M5.2. 

For example, in United States v. Fu Chin Chung, we concluded that 

the Guidelines did not distinguish between sophisticated weaponry 

and parts that could be mapped to sophisticated weaponry. 931 

F.2d 43, 46 (11th Cir. 1991) (per curiam) (“[W]e have no difficulty 

in concluding that . . . the cathode assembly that is part of [a missile] 

guidance system, constitutes sophisticated weaponry.”); see also

United States v. Tsai, 954 F.2d 155, 163 (3d Cir. 1992) (“[I]t is sufficient if the item in question is a component of a sophisticated weapon or weapons system. That is the more sensible reading of the Guideline since otherwise the enhancement would be 

inapplicable to a defendant who separately shipped component 

parts of a sophisticated weapons system.”); United States v. 

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8 Opinion of the Court 20-11035

Nissen, 928 F.2d 690, 694 (5th Cir. 1991) (per curiam) (holding that 

parts were “sophisticated weaponry” because they “were ‘involved’ in a tangible way with ‘sophisticated weaponry.’”). Because the term “weaponry,” which was used in the prior version of 

§ 2M5.2, is synonymous with the term “weapons,” which is used 

in the current version of § 2M5.2, see Weaponry, Oxford English 

Dictionary (3d ed.) (defining the term “weaponry” as “[w]eapons 

collectively”), we see no reason to depart from our, and our sister 

courts’, prior interpretation. 

A simple example illustrates the point. Imagine that a district judge is tasked with sentencing a defendant who tried to smuggle two AR-15s out of the country by disassembling the guns and 

placing their parts in his luggage. On those facts, the district judge

could find that the offense “involved only [ ] non-fully automatic 

small arms,” albeit in disassembled form, “and the number of 

weapons did not exceed two.” § 2M5.2(a)(2). Such an offense 

would thus qualify for a base offense level of 14. 

Stines’s offense, however, is unlike the one in our hypothetical because his offense did not involve a set of parts that could be 

mapped to only two AR-15s. His offense involved, for example, 

eight AR-15 triggers that would service eight AR-15s. So to the extent Stines’s offense involving AR-15 parts can be described as an 

offense involving non-fully automatic small arms, the number of 

AR-15s involved would exceed the maximum two weapons permitted by subsection (a)(2)(A). 

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20-11035 Opinion of the Court 9

In fairness to Stines, we recognize that our interpretation

could lead to results that are at least counterintuitive. See Oral Argument Recording at 6:00–6:44. Under our reading, for instance, a 

defendant exporting just three AR-15 triggers—and nothing else—

would get the higher base offense level (because those triggers 

would service three AR-15s), while a defendant with two fully operable AR-15s would get the lower base offense level. Yet for at 

least two reasons, this sort of hypothetical does not persuade us to 

depart from the Guidelines’ plain meaning. 

First, we apply the absurd results canon quite cautiously, 

and we cannot say that it is truly absurd to measure the harm 

caused by the smuggling of weapons parts by mapping those parts 

to the weapons they would service.1 See CBS Inc. v. PrimeTime 

24 Joint Venture, 245 F.3d 1217, 1228 (11th Cir. 2001). Second, the 

absurd results canon could cut both ways here. Under Stines’s approach, we would focus on the number of fully-functioning weapons to which the relevant weapons parts could be converted. The 

government’s brief points out that, under that view, “[a] criminal 

1 We note that the Ninth Circuit, without even mentioning the absurd results 

canon, held that offenses involving the exportation of military equipment, 

such as night-vision devices, trigger a base offense level of 26. See United 

States v. Carper, 659 F.3d 923, 925 (9th Cir. 2011). Such offenses did not fit 

within § 2M5.2(a)(2) because they did not involve “non-fully automatic small 

arms.” Id. Though one might question the wisdom of treating a defendant 

with one set of night-vision goggles more harshly than a defendant with two

AR-15s, the Ninth Circuit found itself bound to follow the “plain meaning of 

. . . § 2M5.2(a)(2).” Id.

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10 Opinion of the Court 20-11035

who exported thousands of nearly operable firearms—perhaps 

missing only one necessary piece—would automatically receive a 

base offense level of 14.” That result is at least as dubious as any 

that our reading might produce. Therefore, we adhere to the 

Guidelines’ plain meaning, under which the district court correctly 

applied a base offense level of 26.

B 

The second issue in this appeal is straightforward. Stines argues that the district court should have departed downward from 

the recommended Guidelines range when imposing his sentence. 

Stines points to Application Note 1 of the Guidelines, which providesthat “[t]he base offense level assumes that the offense conduct 

was harmful or had the potential to be harmful to a security or foreign policy interest of the United States. In the unusual case where 

the offense conduct posed no such risk, a downward departure 

may be warranted.” U.S.S.G. § 2M5.2 n.1. Stines argues that his 

conduct posed no risk to national security, and that, accordingly,

the district court should have departed downward. 

The problem for Stines is that a district court’s denial of a 

downward departure request is a discretionary decision that is not 

reviewable unless the district court erroneously believed it lacked 

the authority to grant one. United States v. Chase, 174 F.3d 1193, 

1195 (11th Cir. 1999). That was not the case here. The district 

court reasoned that a downward departure was unwarranted because Stines’s conduct had the potential to harm national security. 

In support of its finding, the court referenced political instability 

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20-11035 Opinion of the Court 11

and violence in Haiti, the proximity of Haiti to the United States, 

and the fact that Stines had worked as a gunsmith for the Haitian 

police, who were at times “engaged in fire-fights” with the Haitian 

government. Because the district court knew it had the authority 

to grant a downward departure but chose not to grant one, we lack 

jurisdiction to review that determination. See id.

III 

In conclusion, we hold that: (1) the district court applied the 

correct base offense level because Stines’s offense does not fit 

within the narrow carveout set forth in § 2M5.2(a)(2)(A); and (2) 

we lack jurisdiction to review the district court’s discretionary decision not to depart downward from the Guidelines. Accordingly, 

we affirm.

AFFIRMED.

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20-11035 LUCK, J., Concurring in part and in the judgment 1

LUCK, Circuit Judge, concurring in part and in the judgment:

The majority opinion concludes that: (1) we don’t have jurisdiction to review the district court’s denial of Christopher Daniel 

Stines’s motion for downward departure under application note 

one in sentencing guideline section 2M5.2; and (2) the district court 

correctly applied guideline section 2M5.2(a)(1)’s base offense level 

of twenty-six because Stines’s offense conduct didn’t fit within the 

narrow carveout for a base offense level of fourteen in section 

2M5.2(a)(2). I proudly join the part of the majority opinion (part 

II.B) on the downward departure issue. As to the base offense level 

issue (part II.A), I agree with the majority opinion’s conclusion that 

the base offense level is twenty-six under section 2M5.2(a)(1), and 

the narrow carveout in section 2M5.2(a)(2) doesn’t apply, but I 

would get there in a slightly different way.

Everyone agrees that guideline section 2M5.2 applies to 

Stines’s attempted shipment of gun parts. The only question is 

which base offense level within section 2M5.2 applies here. There 

are two options. The first option is in section 2M5.2(a)(1), which 

sets a default base offense level of twenty-six for offense conduct 

that falls within the guideline for the exportation of arms, munitions, or military equipment or services without a required validated export license. U.S.S.G. § 2M5.2(a)(1). The second option is 

a “narrow” “except[ion]” to the default base offense level. Id.; see 

also id. App. C, Amend. 753 (Reason for Amendment). “[I]f the 

offense involved only . . . non-fully automatic small arms (rifles, 

handguns, or shotguns), and the number of weapons did not 

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2 LUCK, J., Concurring in part and in the judgment 20-11035

exceed two,” then the base offense level is fourteen instead of 

twenty-six. Id. § 2M5.2(a)(2)(A).1

The district court calculated Stines’s advisory guideline 

range using the default base offense level in section 2M5.2(a)(1). 

Stines argued to the district court, and argues to us on appeal, that 

his offense level should have been calculated using the narrow exception in section 2M5.2(a)(2)(A) because the gun parts he attempted to export, if assembled, could make only two complete 

AR-15 rifles—with some parts to spare—which are non-fully automatic small arms and no more than two weapons. So, the issue is 

whether the twenty-three gun parts that Stines attempted to export 

into Haiti are “non-fully automatic small arms.” Are gun parts 

“arms”? If they’re not, then the narrow exception—which only applies to “non-fully automatic small arms”—doesn’t apply, and the

default base offense level does.

The section 2M5.2(a)(2)(A) narrow exception has three textual clues that gun parts are not “arms.” First, the term “arms” is 

not defined in the guidelines, but the Oxford English Dictionary

defines “arms” as “[w]eapons of war or combat; (items of) military 

equipment, both offensive and defensive”; “[f]irearms; [and] weapons, such as pistols, rifles, shotguns, or muskets, from which a 

1 The narrow exception also applies “if the offense involved only . . . ammunition for non-fully automatic small arms, and the number of rounds did not 

exceed 500,” id. § 2M5.2(a)(2)(B), but this is not an ammunition case, so this 

part of the narrow exception doesn’t apply to Stines. 

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20-11035 LUCK, J., Concurring in part and in the judgment 3

missile can be propelled at speed by means of an explosive charge.” 

Arms, Oxford English Dictionary (online ed.) (last visited Apr. 14, 

2022). See United States v. Dougherty, 754 F.3d 1353, 1359 (11th 

Cir. 2014) (using dictionaries, including the Oxford English Dictionary, to define the undefined guideline term “immediate 

flight”). Triggers, switches, hammers, disconnectors, pins, and 

guards—the parts Stines attempted to export—may be components of an offensive or defensive weapon, but they are not themselves weapons. No one ever used just a trigger or just a switch in 

combat without more.

Second, the section 2M5.2(a)(2)(A) narrow exception gives 

some examples of “small arms.” After the phrase “small arms,” the 

narrow exception lists, inside a parenthetical, “rifles, handguns, or 

shotguns.” U.S.S.G. § 2M5.2(a)(2)(A). Those are the kinds of 

“small arms” that fall within the narrow exception to the default 

base offense level for exporting munitions without a license. Each 

of the examples in the narrow exception supports the common definition of “arms.” They are each weapons of war or combat and 

firearms. But the parts Stines had in his suitcase—like disconnectors and pins—are not similar to, or the equivalent of, rifles, handguns, or shotguns. A disconnector, unlike those guns, can’t propel 

a missile.

And third, section 2M5.2(a)(2)(A) says that the narrow exception applies “only” to “non-fully automatic small arms” like “rifles, handguns, or shotguns.” Id. (emphasis added). By adding the 

word “only,” the guidelines emphasized that anything that is not a 

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4 LUCK, J., Concurring in part and in the judgment 20-11035

“small arm” like a rifle, handgun, or shotgun does not fall within 

the narrow exception. As the Fifth Circuit succinctly explained in 

interpreting the same guideline, “‘only’ means ‘only.’” United 

States v. Diaz-Gomez, 680 F.3d 477, 480 (5th Cir. 2012). Gun parts 

are not “only” rifles, handguns, or shotguns. They are the parts of 

those things, but they are not “only” those things.

The few circuits that have interpreted the section 

2M5.2(a)(2)(A) narrow exception have read it the same way. The 

narrow exception now includes “non-fully automatic small arms” 

and “ammunition,” but before 2011, section 2M5.2(a)(2) only applied to “non-fully automatic small arms.” “Ammunition” wasn’t 

mentioned. Before section 2M5.2(a)(2) was amended, the Seventh 

and Fifth Circuits addressed whether exporting ammunition fell 

within the carveout to the default base offense level.

In United States v. Muthana, 60 F.3d 1217 (7th Cir. 1995), the 

defendant was convicted of “knowingly and willfully using an export control document which contained a false statement and 

omitted a material fact to export defense articles.” Id. at 1219. The 

defendant wrote on the export control document that the “shipment to Yemen contained 3,086 pounds of honey rather than approximately 56,000 rounds of ammunition.” Id. As here, the 

Muthana defendant argued that the district court erred in applying 

the default base offense level rather than the base offense level in 

the section 2M5.2(a)(2) narrow exception. Id. at 1224. The narrow 

exception, the court explained, “establishes a base offense level of 

fourteen ‘if the offense involved only non-fully automatic small 

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20-11035 LUCK, J., Concurring in part and in the judgment 5

arms (rifles, handguns, or shotguns), and the number of weapons 

did not exceed ten.’” Id. (quoting section 2M5.2(a)(2)). (The narrow exception has since been amended to two weapons.) The Seventh Circuit rejected the defendant’s argument because his “offense involved approximately 56,000 rounds of ammunition, so 

[g]uideline [section] 2M5.2(a)(2) d[id] not apply.” Id.

The Fifth Circuit reached the same conclusion in DiazGomez. There, the defendant pleaded guilty to “(1) attempting to 

export a nine-millimeter semi-automatic handgun, five ammunition magazines, 611 rounds of nine-millimeter ammunition, and 

fifty rounds of .38 caliber ammunition, and (2) concealing the items 

for export.” Diaz-Gomez, 680 F.3d at 478. The defendant argued 

that the default base offense level in section 2M5.2(a)(1) didn’t apply to his offense conduct “because he pleaded guilty to an offense 

involving only one semi-automatic weapon.” Id. at 479. The Fifth 

Circuit focused on “whether the use of the word ‘only’ in subsection (a)(2) limits the application of the lower base offense level to 

an offense that truly involves only non-fully automatic weapons 

and no ammunition.” Id. at 480. The court explained that it saw 

“no reason to interpret the plain meaning of the term ‘only’ to 

mean anything other than ‘only.’” Id. The defendant “did not have 

‘only’ one small gun hidden in his car—he also had more than 600 

rounds of ammunition that could be used in the gun,” and “the 

guideline does not permit finding an exception for including ammunition.” Id. at 480–81 (quoting United States v. Sero, 520 F.3d 

187, 190 (2d Cir. 2008)).

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6 LUCK, J., Concurring in part and in the judgment 20-11035

Just as one necessary component of a gun—the ammunition—is not “only” an “arm,” so too is another necessary part of 

the gun—the trigger—not only an arm. The hilt of a sword is a 

component of a weapon, but it is not itself a weapon. By itself—

like a trigger or a guard—the hilt does nothing. Triggers and 

guards are parts of a gun, but they are not themselves weapons 

used in combat like “rifles, handguns, or shotguns.” Stines’s gun 

parts do not fall within the section 2M5.2(a)(2)(A) narrow exception.

Stines argues that, despite the guideline’s plain language, 

reading “arms” as excluding gun parts would lead to an absurd result that the sentencing commission couldn’t have intended. See

Small v. United States, 544 U.S. 385, 404 (2005) (Thomas, J., dissenting) (explaining that the “canon against absurdities” should be employed “where the result of applying the plain language would be, 

in a genuine sense, absurd, i.e., where it is quite impossible that 

Congress could have intended the result and where the alleged absurdity is so clear as to be obvious to most anyone” (quotation and 

ellipsis omitted)). If he had attempted to transport two assembled 

AR-15s and nothing else, Stines argues, the narrow exception 

would have applied to give him a base offense level of fourteen, but 

if he had broken those two AR-15s down into their constituent 

parts to transport, the higher default base offense level of twentysix would have applied.

This result is not absurd. The sentencing commission, in 

2011, amended section 2M5.2(a)(2)(A) to reduce, from ten to two, 

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20-11035 LUCK, J., Concurring in part and in the judgment 7

the amount of “non-fully automatic small arms” carved out from 

the default base offense level. The commission narrowed the exception because, it determined, “export offenses involving more 

than two firearms are more serious and more likely to involve trafficking.” U.S.S.G. App. C, Amend. 753 (Reason for Amendment). 

The commission intended greater punishment (through a higher 

base offense level) for offense conduct more likely to involve trafficking.

If Stines had tried to ship two AR-15 rifles from the United 

States to Haiti, it would be less likely that the shipment was meant 

to traffic the firearms. But, if those two rifles were disassembled 

into twenty parts and he tried to ship those twenty parts, the attempted shipment of twenty gun parts would have involved more 

than two firearms and thus would have been more serious and 

more likely to involve trafficking. This is because each part is a 

component of one AR-15 rifle, so the twenty parts are components 

of as many as twenty AR-15 rifles. And that amount of rifles, as the 

sentencing commission explained, is much more likely to involve 

trafficking in firearms.

Shipping gun parts instead of whole guns is also more likely 

to involve trafficking in firearms because a trafficker is more likely 

to ship small parts to avoid detection. A trafficker can tuck a rifle 

pin away in a little suitcase compartment better than he can conceal a whole rifle. But if he shipped two guns, that shipment would 

have involved only two hard-to-miss guns. 

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8 LUCK, J., Concurring in part and in the judgment 20-11035

Stines shipped twenty-three easier-to-conceal gun parts. 

Necessary parts that can service up to twenty-three guns are more 

dangerous and worthier of the higher default base offense level 

than two guns are.

Because gun parts are not “non-fully automatic small arms,” 

and applying the default base offense level is not absurd, I agree 

with the majority opinion that we should affirm Stines’s sentence.

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20-11035 LAGOA, J., Concurring 1

LAGOA, Circuit Judge, concurring:

I concur in full with the majority’s opinion. I write separately to explain why I disagree with Judge Luck’s opinion concurring in part. 

That opinion disagrees with the majority opinion’s interpretation of U.S.S.G. § 2M5.2(a)(2): that component parts of a nonfully automatic small arm are weapons. Looking at the definition 

of the term “arms,” the concurrence in part suggests that the relevant AR-15 parts are not themselves “arms” that can be taken into 

combat or war. Luck, J., Concur. Op. at 2–3. But an AR-15 is an 

end-item that is the sum of its component parts. And the parts 

Stines attempted to export are “(items of) military equipment,” as 

designated by the United States Munitions List, even though the 

parts are not, themselves, the end-item. Arms, Oxford English Dictionary (3d ed.) (defining the term “arms” as “[w]eapons of war or 

combat; (items of) military equipment, both offensive and defensive; munitions”); see 22 C.F.R. § 121.1(a)(1) (the United States Munitions List categories “usually start by enumerating or otherwise 

describing end-items, followed by major systems and equipment; 

parts, components, accessories, and attachments”). Indeed, the 

Munitions List—which is referenced in § 2M5.2, Application Note 

1—categorizes both firearms and component parts of firearms and 

guns and components parts of guns, as single categories of defense 

articles. See 22 C.F.R. § 121.1 (“Category I Firearms and Related 

Articles” and “Category II Guns and Armament”).

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20-11035 LAGOA, J., Concurring 2

The concurrence in part also suggests that exporting component parts of non-fully automatic small arms does not involve 

only “non-fully automatic small arms.” Luck, J. Concur. at 3–4. In 

support, the opinion cites cases which held that, under a prior version of § 2M5.2(a)(2), exporting ammunition in addition to nonfully automatic firearms was not an offense that involved only nonfully automatic weapons. Id. at 4–7 (citing United States v. 

Muthana, 60 F.3d 1217 (7th Cir. 1995) and United States v. DiazGomez, 680 F.3d 477 (5th Cir. 2012)). But unlike firearm parts or 

gun parts, which together with their end-items form a single category of defense articles, ammunition is its own separate category 

of defense articles under the U.S. Munitions List. See 22 C.F.R. § 

121.1 (“Category III Ammunition and Ordinance”). And the parties 

do not dispute that the relevant parts are components only for 

“non-fully automatic small arms.”

Finally, a note about the “canon against absurdities.” Both 

the majority and the concurrence in part reject Stines’s resort to 

that canon. And rightfully so, because, as noted in the concurrence 

in part, proper application of that canon is limited to a truly exceptional case. See Small v. United States, 544 U.S. 385, 404 (2005) 

(Thomas, J., dissenting) (the canon against absurdities “should [be]

employ[ed] only . . . where it is quite impossible that Congress 

could have intended the result . . . and where the alleged absurdity is so clear as to be obvious to most anyone” (quotation omitted)). Neither the majority’s nor the concurrence in part’s read of 

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20-11035 LAGOA, J., Concurring 3

section 2M5.2(a)(2) comes anywhere close to implicating that 

canon of construction. 

Based on the Guideline’s text, including its references to the 

United States Munitions List, and our decision in United States v. 

Fu Chin Chung, 931 F.2d 43, 46 (11th Cir. 1991), I agree with the 

majority opinion’s interpretation of § 2M5.2(a)(2). 

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