United States v. Harold Dean McGraw

503 F.2d 457

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Decided: October 2, 1974
• Docket: 74-1346
• Status: Published

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This is a timely appeal by defendant McGraw from his conviction and resulting sentence on an indictment charging that he willfully and knowingly possessed a sawed-off shotgun which had not been registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Trans-, fer Record, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d).'

The only point raised upon appeal is that 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d), as applied to him as a previously convicted felon, is unconstitutional and that it violates his fifth amendment protection against self-incrimination because any attempt to register the firearm would be an admission of guilt of violation of 18 U.S. C. App. § 1202(a)(1) which makes it a crime for a convicted felon to possess a firearm.

This case was consolidated for argument with United States v. Roberts, 503 F.2d 453. Opinion has been filed in that case on this date. Roberts and McGraw were represented by the same counsel. The constitutional attack here made is identical to that made in Roberts. For the reasons stated in Roberts, we reject defendant’s constitutional attack upon § 5861(d) and affirm the conviction.