United States v. Joseph Anthony Cruz

We must decide whether 18 U.S.C. § 922 (j), which makes it unlawful for a person to receive “any stolen firearm” “which has been shipped or transported” in interstate commerce knowing that the firearm “was stolen,” applies to any firearm that has travelled in interstate commerce and is thereafter stolen, or only to a firearm which has travelled in interstate commerce as a stolen firearm.

Joseph Anthony Cruz was convicted on a conditional guilty plea of receiving stolen firearms in violation of § 922®. Knowing that grenades were military issue and stolen, Cruz “received” them in Guam and disposed of them in Guam. He moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground that these grenades are excludable under the government exemption in § 925(a)(1), and thus that § 922® cannot apply, because the firearms which he received had been transported to Guam by the Navy. The district court correctly denied his motion to dismiss on this ground. However, on appeal, Cruz argues for the first time that § 922® cannot apply as a matter of law when the theft occurs after the interstate commerce because the statute has to do with transportation in interstate commerce of a “stolen firearm,” not a firearm…