Opinion ID: 1291658
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Analysis of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals

Text: In its review of a similar case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals offered a different interpretation of the antique firearm exception. United States v. Tribunella, 749 F.2d 104, 109 (2d Cir.1984). [10] In that case, Tribunella was convicted for possession of an unregistered double-barreled sawed-off shotgun that police found concealed in an area above the ceiling tile of his basement bedroom. Id. at 106. A firearms expert from the local police department examined the gun and testified that its measurements fit the statutory ones for firearm, and that he successfully test-fired it using standard 12-gauge shotgun shells that were commercially available. Id. at 107. A dealer and consultant in antique firearms gave his expert opinion that the shotgun had been manufactured before 1899 and was designed to fire a type of fixed ammunition made before 1899 that is no longer commercially available in the United States. Id. Furthermore, he testified that while the gun like many other antiquescould fire ammunition not designed for it, modern ammunition would eventually make the gun explode: `it could happen on the next shot, [or] it could be a hundred shots down the line. . . .' Id. Construing the antique-firearm exception's two conditions (that ammunition for the gun is no longer manufactured and that ammunition for the gun is not readily available), the Court opined that [a]lthough the first condition appears to focus on ammunition designed specifically for the pre-1899 gun, no such focus is spelled out in the second condition. Id. at 109. It rejected Tribunella's interpretation of the second condition as requiring only that specifically designed ammunition be unavailable, though it acknowledged that his view was not definitely refuted by the language of the condition. Id. Instead, it adopted the Government's interpretation that the second condition applies to any ammunition and not to just specially designed ammunition [if one] attributes to the word `for' different connotations in the two conditions: in the first, `for' means `designed for use in'; in the second, `for' means `able to be used in.' Id. Though this reading requires some interpolation, the Court concluded that it was truer to the language Congress actually used, as [i]t is more likely that Congress meant the word `for' to have different connotations in accordance with its context than that it used the absolute word `not' to denote the less absolute concept of `no longer.' Id. (emphasis added). Moreover, it acknowledged the dual purposes behind the statute, id. at 110-11 (detailing the statutory and legislative history), but determined that decreasing gun violence was the overriding concern. Id. at 110. If ammunition made for other weapons is readily available in commercial channels and is usable in a pre-1899 firearm, it reasoned, it cannot safely be inferred that the pre-1899 firearm is never likely to be used as a weapon. Id. at 111. Therefore, the Court concluded, the firearm exception exclud[es] from the definition of antique any firearm for which any usable ammunition is readily available in ordinary channels of commerce. Id. at 109 (emphasis added).