Court Opinion

ID: 9495512
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:04:32.548071+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:03.617241
License: Public Domain

ROTH, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully disagree with the majority that the district court “double counted” when it applied a four level sentencing enhancement pursuant to Section 2K2.1(b)(5) of the United States Sentencing Guidelines (“USSG”) in calculating the offense level for defendant’s conviction for possession of firearms by a convicted felon because the firearms were used in connection with another felony, namely burglary. “Double counting occurs when one part of the Guidelines is applied to increase a defendant’s punishment on account of a kind of harm that has already been fully accounted for by application of another part of the Guidelines.” United States v. Kenney, 283 F.3d 934, 936 (8th Cir.2002), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 123 S.Ct. 270, - L.Ed.2d -, 2002 WL 1399045 (Oct. 7, 2002). In this case, neither defendant’s conviction for being a felon in possession of firearms, nor his enhancement pursuant to Section 2K2.1(b)(4) for possessing stolen firearms, fully accounts for the harm posed by his possession of firearms during a burglary.
Section 2K2.1(b)(5) provides that' “[i]f the defendant used or possessed any firearm or ammunition in connection with another felony offense ... increase by 4 levels.” Application Note 18 to Guideline 2K2.1 defines “another felony offense” as “offenses other than ... firearms possession or trafficking offenses.” In this case, the burglary of Beck’s Sporting Goods Store is an offense other than the felon in possession offense. Burglary is a crime of violence directed against property, see United States v. Parson, 955 F.2d 858, 861 n. 1, 865 (3d Cir.1992), while what the felon in possession of firearms statute seeks to combat is the risk that a felon who possesses firearms is more likely than the *829average person who possesses firearms to use the firearms for criminal purposes because, “by past deeds that felon has shown the willingness to engage in criminal activity. ...” Impounded (Juvenile R.G.), 117 F.3d 730, 738 n. 13 (3d Cir.1997). Further, even though defendant did not possess the firearms when he entered the sporting goods store, obtaining the firearms in the store was sufficient to satisfy the “in connection with” prong. The “subsequent possession of firearms satisfies the nexus requirement for possession ... because those firearms were possessed and could have been used to facilitate the [burglary].” United States v. Armstead, 114 F.3d 504, 512 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 922, 118 S.Ct. 315 (1997).
The majority, relying on United States v. Sanders, 162 F.3d 396 (6th Cir.1998), holds that the district court erroneously double counted when it enhanced defendant’s sentence pursuant to Section 2K2.1(b)(5). See id. (holding that a district court improperly double counted when it applied an enhancement under Section 2K2.1(b)(5) for the other felony of burglary to a felon in possession conviction and a knowingly transporting stolen firearms conviction, where a convicted felon defendant stole firearms from a pawn shop). However, Sanders incorrectly determined that the burglary of the firearms was “a factor that had already been taken into account in [defendant’s] Sentencing Guideline calculations: § 2K2.1(a)(6) prohibited person, § 2K2.1(b)(l)(F), 50 or more firearms, and § 2K2.1(b)(4) stolen firearms.” 162 F.3d at 400.
The conviction for being a felon in possession of firearms accounts for the risk that a felon who possesses firearms is more likely to use those firearms in criminal activity and applies to any felon who possesses a firearm, even if he is not using the firearms for any illegal purpose. However, this does not fully account for the additional risk addressed by Section 2K2.1(b)(5), that law enforcement officers or an innocent bystander will be shot when anyone, whether or not he is a felon, possesses a firearm during the commission of a felony. See United States v. Luna, 165 F.3d 316, 323 (5th Cir.), cert. denied 526 U.S. 1126, 119 S.Ct. 1783, 143 L.Ed.2d 811 (1999). In other words, in this case, the risk that defendant would use the firearms was increased by the fact that he was a convicted felon and by the fact that he possessed those firearms during a burglary. The felon in possession statute addresses the first risk and the enhancement under Section 2K2.1(b)(5) addresses the second.
The difference in the harm that arises when a felon possesses firearms and the harm that arises when a person possesses firearms in connection with another felony can be seen from the fact that, had defendant, as a felon, possessed the firearms before he broke into Beck’s Sporting Goods Store, Section 2K2.1(b)(5) would apply. See, e.g., United States v. Rutledge, 28 F.3d 998 (9th Cir.1994), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1177, 115 S.Ct. 1161, 130 L.Ed.2d 1117 (1995) (holding that there was no double counting where a district court applies Section 2K2.1(b)(5) to enhance a conviction for being a felon in possession where the defendant used a firearm to rob a shop). Defendant does not dispute that the enhancement under § 2K2.1(b)(5) would be appropriate in Rutledge, but rather, relying on Sanders, argues that Rutledge is distinguishable because the other felony in that case involved “a separation of time between the offense of conviction and the other felony offense,-or a distinction of conduct between that occurring in the offense of conviction and the other felony offense.” Sanders, 162 F.3d at 400. However, the threat to law enforcement officials and the general public is no less merely because defendant ob*830tained the firearms while inside the store, as opposed to bringing the firearms with him into the store. In either case, he possessed deadly weapons, and his possession of firearms as a convicted felon was distinct conduct from his burglary of the store.
Likewise, the two level enhancement defendant received under Section 2K2.1(b)(4), which provides “[i]f any firearm was stolen ... increase by 2 levels,” does not address the harm to law enforcement and the general public posed by a person possessing firearms while committing another felony because:
[s]ubseetion (b)(4) increases a base offense level ipso facto if the thing possessed by the defendant is a stolen firearm. For example, if [defendant] had received the stolen firearm in his home and subsequently been convicted for attempting to sell it, his sentence would have been enhanced under subsection (b)(4) because the firearm he sought to sell was stolen. But assuming that he committed no underlying felony, he would not have received an enhancement under subsection (b)(5). Subsection (b)(5) requires an increase in the base offense level when the firearm in question is somehow involved in another felony offense.
Luna, 165 F.3d at 323. “Subsection (b)(4) deals with the stolen nature of the firearms themselves, regardless of the possessor’s knowledge of or participation in obtaining the stolen weapons. In contrast, subsection (b)(5) addresses the conduct surrounding the possession of the firearms, specifically concerning the use or possession of the firearms in connection with other prohibited conduct.” Kenney, 283 F.3d at 938; see also, USSG § 2K2.1 Application Note 19. As the district court noted:
If the Court accepts defense counsel’s argument, then essentially what you have here is a burglary which goes unchallenged, or that there are no guidelines or anything which adequately takes into consideration that element of the crime, because essentially what we would be doing is just focusing on the fact that the defendant, [a] convicted felon, possessed stolen firearms. But the offense encompasses more than that. It is also a burglary.
Appendix 61a.
In sum, defendant’s conviction for being a felon in possession of firearms, and the enhancement under Section 2K2.1(b)(4) for possessing stolen firearms, do not fully account for the harm posed by the fact that those stolen firearms were possessed in connection with the other felony of burglary. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.