Still more proof that federal courts have no real interest in gun rights

I am not especially surprised that the Second Amendment ruling in Heller has not changed the extreme sentences being handed out for federal gun possession crimes in federal courts.  And yet I cannot help but note some of the disturbing cases that still get summary treatment despite Heller‘s supposedly strong embrace of an individual’s right to keep and bear arms.

Specifically, consider the unpublished per curiam opinion today from an Eighth Circuit panel in US v. Smith, No. 08-2043 (8th Cir. Oct. 6, 2008) (available here).  Though the details are sketchy from the opinion, it appears that the defendant was acquitted of various gun possession charges at trial, but still was convicted of one count of being a felon-in-possession of a firearm.  (The firearm in question is a popular hunting rifle, the Norinco SKS pictured above.  Notably, the Smith opinion gets the name of the rifle wrong, calling it a Norico SKS.)

For the crime of possession a popular hunting rifle, the defendant in Smith gets a sentence of more than eight years in federal prison.  Of course, Mr. Smith is surely a bad dude, since we know he has a felony record, and that must have been a long record in order to have resulted in an applicable guideline sentencing range of 100 to 125 months.  Still, according to Smith opinion, the defendant did have some mitigating circumstances going for him.  Moreover, as I keep wanting to believe, if there really is a serious commitment to Second Amendment rights, there should be some constitutional concerns about sending someone to prison for nearly a decade simply for possessing a hunting rifle.  But apparently not, since the Eighth Circuit panel summarily affirms the defendant’s sentence in Smith.

Some related posts (written both before and after the Supreme Court’s opinion in Heller)::

• Do any Second Amendment amici oppose extreme gun crime sentencing?
• District Court rejects Second Amendment claim from misdemeanant
• Updates on post-Heller Second Amendment litigation
• Justice Scalia sells out felon gun rights, but on what basis exactly?
• Prosecutorial headaches after Heller
• One (of many?) post-Heller motion to dismiss felon in possession federal indictment
• Former SG Ted Olson suggests Heller could impact broad prohibitions on felon gun rights
• Might the ACLU be a strong supporter of all persons’ gun rights?
• The post-Heller litigation headaches (and judicial cut-backs) have begun
• Another review of felon efforts to assert Second Amendment rights
• More thoughts about the scope of Second Amendment rights
• More than six years in federal prison for (not quite) bearing arms
• What might Second Amendment strict scrutiny mean for strict gun laws?