Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 359.0

524US2

Unit: $U88

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314

CARON v. UNITED STATES

Opinion of the Court

dress the point agree. See Caron, 77 F. 3d, at 2; McGrath
v. United States, 60 F. 3d 1005, 1008 (CA2 1995), cert. denied,
516 U. S. 1121 (1996); United States v. Hall, 20 F. 3d 1066,
1068–1069 (CA10 1994); United States v. Glaser, 14 F. 3d
1213, 1218 (CA7 1994); United States v. Thomas, 991 F.
2d 206, 212–213 (CA5), cert. denied, 510 U. S. 1014 (1993);
United States v. Dahms, 938 F. 2d 131, 133–134 (CA9 1991);
United States v. Essick, 935 F. 2d 28, 30–31 (CA4 1991);
United States v. Cassidy, 899 F. 2d 543, 550, and n. 14 (CA6
1990).

Second, the District Court ruled, and petitioner urges
here, that the unless clause allows an offender to possess
what state law permits him to possess, and nothing more.
Here, petitioner’s shotguns and riﬂes were permitted by
state law, so, under their theory, the weapons would not be
covered by the unless clause. While we do not dispute the
common sense of this approach, the words of the statute
do not permit it. The unless clause is activated if a resto-
ration of civil rights “expressly provides that the person
may not . . . possess . . . ﬁrearms.”
18 U. S. C. § 921(a)(20).
Either the restorations forbade possession of “ﬁrearms” and
the convictions count for all purposes, or they did not and
the convictions count not at all. The unless clause looks to
the terms of the past restorations alone and does not refer
to the weapons at issue in the present case. So if the Massa-
chusetts convictions count for some purposes, they count for
all and bar possession of all guns.

III

The phrase “may not . . . possess . . . ﬁrearms,” then, must
be interpreted under either of what the parties call the two
“all-or-nothing” approaches. Either it applies when the
State forbids one or more types of ﬁrearms, as the Govern-
ment contends; or it does not apply if state law permits one
or more types of ﬁrearms, regardless of the one possessed in
the particular case.