Opinion ID: 790007
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: gun evidence

Text: 53 The district court allowed the government to introduce evidence of the gun found in Banks's Jeep the night of his arrest. After a proper Miranda warning, Banks admitted to the arresting officer that he owned the gun. Banks now argues that the district court erred in admitting evidence of the gun because it was unfairly prejudicial and its probative value was outweighed by the prejudice. See Fed.R.Evid. 403. Again, we review the district court's ruling on admissibility for abuse of discretion. See Rangel, 350 F.3d at 650. 54 This court has often said that guns are tools of the trade for drug dealing. See, e.g., United States v. Wyatt, 102 F.3d 241, 248 (7th Cir.1996). It seems obvious, then, that the gun found in Banks's Jeep immediately after he met with Jackson would be relevant to the question of whether Banks had sold Jackson the cocaine ejected from his (Jackson's) car as charged. Banks argues that the gun evidence was unfairly prejudicial, and that the district judge's comment that [the gun evidence] is tremendously prejudicial shows she did not know she had the discretion to exclude evidence of the gun. (Tr. at 1421.) We think it much more likely that the district court judge understood the rules of evidence and admitted the gun evidence because, although it was unquestionably prejudicial, it was not so unfairly prejudicial as to substantially outweigh its probative value. Admitting evidence of the gun was not an abuse of discretion.