United States v. Charles Philip MacDonald

MacDonald was convicted of various crimes involving unlawful possession and sale of firearms. He appeals on two issues, whether his army court-martial conviction was a sufficient basis for felon in possession under 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g)(1), and whether the judge erred in the guidelines calculation of offense level for the gun sales. We affirm.

MacDonald was court-martialed forty years ago for fraudulent enlistment, failure to obey a lawful order, and sale of a “liberty pass,” in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and sentenced to two years at hard labor. In 1989, he procured a federal firearms dealer’s license by lying on the ap plication. Several times he met in his hotel lobby with a federal undercover agent and sold guns to him, without asking for identification or filling out required papers. He also sold several guns in the same manner to a man he knew was a convicted felon.

I. The Court-Martial.

No facts were in dispute on this issue. MacDonald argues that, because a general court-martial is not a court, and the military offenses of which he was convicted are not crimes in the civilian sense, he should not be deemed to have been convicted of a crime in a…