Opinion ID: 3033428
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: United States v. Adams

Text: [9] Our conclusion is buttressed by the First Circuit’s recent construction of the word “altered” in United States v. Adams, 305 F.3d 30 (1st Cir. 2002), a case with similar facts, but which interpreted 18 U.S.C. § 922(k) rather than Guideline § 2K2.1(b)(4). The defendant in Adams, a convicted felon who admitted attempting to scratch out the serial number on a pistol he owned, was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm and of possessing a firearm with an “altered” serial number. Id. at 33; 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), (k). At trial, the district court charged the jury that “to alter” was “to make some change in the appearance of the serial number.” Adams, 305 F.3d at 30. On appeal, the defendant argued that this instruction was in error, and contended that a “material alteration . . . rendering the weapon difficult or impossible to trace” was necessary to justify a conviction. Id. at 34. The Adams court, reading “altered” in its statutory context beside the words “removed” and “obliterated,” first noted that § 922(k) “aims to punish one who possesses a firearm whose principal means of tracing origin and transfers in ownership— its serial number—has been deleted or made appreciably more difficult to make out.” Id. It further observed that “nothing in UNITED STATES v. CARTER 11487 [the] language or purpose suggests that the alteration must make tracing impossible or extraordinarily difficult.” Id. Because “alter” is not an “obscure or special-purpose term,” the Adams court concluded that it was enough to charge the jury in the words of the statute, allowing common sense to be their guide, holding that “any change that makes the serial number appreciably more difficult to discern should be enough.” Id. Since the serial number on the defendant’s pistol had been abraded such that four of the six digits were “significantly more difficult to read,” it upheld the defendant’s conviction, noting that “[o]nly by reading the term ‘alter’ to mean ‘obliterate’ or ‘make impossible to interpret’ could we find the evidence insufficient.” Id. at 35. [10] Thus the First Circuit in Adams found that § 922(k)’s purpose—to punish possessors of firearms whose serial numbers have been “deleted or made appreciably more difficult to make out”—comported with the ordinary meaning of the words used in that statute. Id. at 34. Finding ourselves confronted by a related provision and analogous factual circumstances, we find the reasoning of the Adams court persuasive and adopt it here. Like the Adams court found in the context of § 922(k), we find that nothing in the language or purpose of Guideline § 2K2.1(b)(4) suggests that the defacement must make tracing impossible or extraordinarily difficult for the enhancement to apply. See id.