Savage

I. Background

Savage pled guilty to and was sentenced for possession of an unregistered firearm and possession of a firearm not identi- fied by a serial number in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5841, 5861(d), 5861(i) and 5871. In its original sentencing, the dis- trict court found that Savage had at least two prior felony con- victions that qualified as crimes of violence — a 2004 state conviction for felony assault with a weapon and a 2004 state conviction for escape. See United States v. Savage, 178 F. App’x 726, 727-28 (9th Cir. 2006).

Savage conceded that felony assault with a weapon is a crime of violence, but disputed that felony escape qualified as such. Id. The district court ruled that the felony escape was categorically a crime of violence, noting that (at that time) the issue was an open question in our circuit but that “every cir- cuit in the country, except the Ninth Circuit, had held that escape categorically constituted a crime of violence under § 4B1.2(a).” Id. at 728. Accordingly, the district court sen- tenced Savage under U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(1), which governs the base offense level for Savage’s crime of conviction when a defendant has two or more previous…