Opinion ID: 734145
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Channels of Interstate Commerce

Text: 51 Recourse to the first two Lopez categories suffers initially, however, from a serious factual error. Proponents of the constitutionality of § 922(o) assume that every possession of a machinegun manufactured after May 19, 1986, excepting only the narrow class of possessions permitted in the statute, connotes that the gun traveled or was transferred in interstate commerce. These decisions overlook that an automatic weapon may be created by modifying a semiautomatic weapon, see United States v. Jones, 976 F.2d 176, 178 (4th Cir.1992), cert. denied 508 U.S. 914, 113 S.Ct. 2351, 124 L.Ed.2d 260 (1993) (describing home conversion of shotguns), or that it may evolve from ordinary wear and tear on a semiautomatic firearm. In United States v. Anderson, 885 F.2d 1248, 1250-51 (5th Cir.1989) (en banc ), this court recognized that [s]everal of the most popular shotgun models, many handguns, and not a few rifles can by either wear and tear or a simple operation become machineguns within the statutory definition. Section 922(o) would therefore prohibit the simple possession of an ordinary semi-automatic pistol whose sear wore off in 1987. Shorn of the misunderstanding that illegal possession cannot occur without illegal transfer 14 , § 922(o) plainly reaches mere intrastate possession of machineguns as well as possession of machineguns which have illegally moved or been transferred in interstate commerce. Any decision upholding § 922(o) under Lopez must come to grips with this reality. 52 Rambo, for instance, seeks to justify § 922(o) as regulating the channels of interstate commerce because it is an attempt to prohibit the interstate transportation of a commodity through the channels of commerce. Rambo, 74 F.3d at 951, citing Lopez, 514 U.S. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 1630. But because § 922(o) also prohibits purely intrastate possession of machineguns, Rambo 's logic proves too much. The first Lopez category, as earlier described, included cases that were distinguished by express jurisdictional nexus requirements to movements or transactions in interstate commerce. In Kenney, the court rejected the channels of commerce rationale for § 922(o) on this basis: 53 ... although it may be true that Congress must regulate intrastate transfers and even mere possessions of machineguns in aid of its prerogative of preventing the misuse of the channels of interstate commerce, the regulation still regulates much more than the channels of commerce. 54 91 F.3d at 889. 55 Lopez summarily rejected the argument that banning firearm possession in school zones regulates the channels of commerce. Section 922(o) does not more clearly express a nexus to channels of commerce than did its virtual clone, § 922(q), the Lopez provision. To disregard the similarity of the provisions trifles with Lopez. Section 922(o) is limited neither to transfers nor to possession in or even affecting interstate commerce. It criminalizes, as in this case, the mere possession of a machinegun independent of any type of transfer. This provision does not regulate the channels of interstate commerce. Decisions like Rambo and the panel opinion, in holding otherwise, have distorted the channels of commerce rationale and are attempting to read a statute which does not exist. 56 Cases relying on the channels of commerce rationale also misplace emphasis on the temporal limit on the possession ban and the dangerousness of the product. Neither of these characteristics more closely aligns § 922(o) with a regulation of the channels of interstate commerce. The grandfather clause of the ban applies it only to machineguns manufactured or imported after May of 1986, but that feature fails to enhance its relation to interstate commerce. 15 After 1986, both interstate and wholly intrastate private possessions are prohibited, yet there are no Congressional findings that this drastic impact upon intrastate activity was connected to or mandated by a relation to the channels of interstate commerce. Similarly, the fact that machineguns are a dangerous commodity does not place them more or less within the channels of commerce for purposes of federal regulation. United States v. Bishop, 66 F.3d 569, 587 n. 28 (3d Cir.1995) (The dangerousness of the object is not the source of Congressional power; the connection to interstate commerce is.) Baseball cards as well as toxic chemicals can be regulated by Congress only if there is a necessary relationship to interstate commerce. The argument based on dangerousness is more closely attuned to justifying a national police power than a national commerce power. Lopez reminded us that the Constitution does not confer a general police power upon the federal government. Lopez, 514 U.S. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 1634.