Court Opinion

ID: 9455413
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:21:09.930577+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:35.218785
License: Public Domain

BONSAL, District Judge
(dissenting) :
I respectfully dissent.
In Haynes v. United States, 390 U.S. 85, 88 S.Ct. 722, 19 L.Ed.2d 923 (1968), Mr. Justice Harlan observed that the National Firearms Act, of which 26 U.S.C. § 5821 is a part, is “an interrelated statutory system for the taxation of certain classes of firearms,” 390 U.S. at 87, 88 S.Ct. at 725, and that the definitions of “firearm” within the meaning of the Act, limited to such devices as sawed-off shotguns, carbines, automatic weapons, and silencers, were “apparently intended to guarantee that only weapons used principally by persons engaged in unlawful activities would be subjected to taxation.” 390 U.S. at 87, 88 S.Ct. at 725. See United States v. Minor, 398 F.2d 511, 516 (2d Cir. 1968), aff’d, 395 U.S. 932, 89 S.Ct. 2000, 23 L.Ed.2d 447 (1969). This focus upon the unlawful is intensified under § 5821, which imposes a tax of “$200 for each firearm so made,” payable in advance, upon persons who are not “in the business of manufacturing firearms.” Manufacturers pay an occupational tax of $500 per year imposed under 26 U.S.C. § 5801, and register pursuant to § 5802 rather than § 5821. The confiscatory nature of the non-occupational tax and the requirement that it be paid in advance render suspect a conclusion that the statute is primarily a revenue measure, particularly when contrasted with the nominal annual tax imposed on “manufacturers.”
As the majority observes, this case differs from Haynes in that a person registering under § 5821 would not be in violation of the other provisions of the Act so as to incriminate himself with respect to them. See Haynes v. United States, supra, 390 U.S. at 96, 97, 88 S.Ct. 722. But it is ingenuous to suppose *583that registration under § 5821 would not itself be incriminating. A silencer is a useless piece of metal — unless it is to be used with a gun. The inference is unavoidable that the silencer is intended to be used, or to be transferred to someone who intends to use it; that use is necessarily with a firearm, and is necessarily illegal. The government does not suggest that there are legitimate uses for silencers, and none come to mind; uses which do come to mind are assassination and armed robbery. That Connecticut has no statutes against silencers per se shows only that the area is adequately covered by criminal statutes applicable to situations where a silencer might be used, such as statutes relating to firearms and crime. (The only Connecticut statute on silencers forbids their use in hunting, hunting not being a criminal activity.)
The relation between silencers and violent crime is so obvious that notwithstanding the nonexistence of a Connecticut statute, I thing that a person declaring his intent to manufacture silencers is incriminating himself. His declaration is not necessarily prospective in effect, but even if it were, the court in Marchetti recognized that prospectivity was not a bar to assertion of the privilege under these circumstances. Marchetti v. United States, 390 U.S. 39, 52-54, 88 S.Ct. 697 (1968).
Since § 5821 is directed at persons “ ‘inherently suspect of criminal activities,’ ” Haynes v. United States, supra at 96, 88 S.Ct. 697, a timely assertion of the right against self-incrimination is a bar to prosecution for failing to register under § 5821.
I do not think that petitioner waived his fifth amendment claim by pleading guilty prior to Haynes, Marchetti, and Grosso. United States v. Lucia, 416 F.2d 920 (5th Cir. 1969); United States v. Manfredonia, 391 F.2d 229 (2d Cir. 1968).
I would reverse.