CINCINNATI, OH – The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and 57-month prison sentence of Dalton Samuel Brooks, rejecting his challenge that two federal firearm statutes violated the Second Amendment.
Brooks pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) and possessing an unregistered short-barreled shotgun under 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d). He preserved the right to appeal the denial of his motion to dismiss both charges on constitutional grounds.
The court held that § 922(g)(1) is constitutional both facially and as applied to Brooks. Citing United States v. Williams, the court found that Brooks’s prior convictions for assault and drug trafficking made him presumptively dangerous. He did not provide any evidence to rebut that presumption.
On the second charge, the court found that § 5861(d), which prohibits possession of unregistered short-barreled shotguns, also passes constitutional scrutiny. Applying the framework from New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen and United States v. Bridges, the court concluded that short-barreled shotguns are “dangerous and unusual” weapons not typically possessed for lawful purposes and therefore fall outside Second Amendment protections.
The court emphasized that precedent from United States v. Miller and District of Columbia v. Heller supports the constitutionality of restrictions on such firearms. It noted that other federal appellate courts have also upheld § 5861(d) post-Bruen.
The ruling was issued in Case No. 24-5334.
