Opinion ID: 3033428
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Ordinary meaning of “obliterated”

Text: Although several dictionary definitions do, in fact, support Carter’s view that “obliterated” might be read to mean “untraceable,” alternative definitions in the same dictionaries suggest that it means something less than scientific untraceability. For example, “obliterate” is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as “[t]o remove from existence; to destroy all traces of,” Black’s Law Dictionary 1106 (8th ed. 2004); by Webster’s Dictionary as to “destroy utterly all traces, indications, significance of,” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 1557 (1981); and by the American Heritage Dictionary as “[t]o do away with completely so as to leave no trace,” American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 1248 (3d ed. 1992). Such definitions reasonably could embrace a requirement that a serial number be obliterated not just beyond the unaided eye, but also beyond scientific recognition. This is not, however, the only possible interpretation, as alternative definitions define “obliterate” more flexibly. For example, obliterate is also defined by both Black’s and American Heritage as “[t]o wipe out, rub off, or erase,” Black’s, supra, at 1106; American Heritage, supra, at 1248; and by Webster’s as “to make undecipherable or imperceptible by . . . wearing or chipping away,” Webster’s, supra, at 1557. Examining dictionaries for the ordinary meaning of “obliterated” is thus inconclusive, and our analysis of § 2K2.1(b)(4)’s plain language turns instead on our construction of “altered.”