United States v. Jack Steven Karnes

In 1945 appellant, Jack Steven Karnes, was sentenced to ten years in prison and dishonorably discharged from the United States Army for the crime of desertion. After passage of the Omnibus Crime Bill and Safe Streets Act of 1968, Karnes received firearms shipped in interstate commerce to his business located in South El Monte, California, and performed various welding and machining operations on those firearms. In November 1968, Karnes crossed the California-Arizona border with 50 carbines and delivered them to a firearms dealer in Phoenix, Arizona. On these facts, Karnes was convicted by a jury for violation of 18 U.S.C. App. § 1202(a) (2), which prohibits a person who has been dishonorably discharged from the Armed Forces from receiving, possessing, or transporting in commerce, any firearms. A five-year probationary sentence was imposed upon Karnes by the district judge in lieu of the statutory penalties of a $10,000 fine or imprisonment not to exceed two years, or both. We have jurisdiction over this appeal. 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

Karnes disputes nothing on this appeal but the constitutionality of the statute he was convicted of violating. We find no violation of the Constitution,…