Defendant Gail Manney has a son, Razaaq, who is a convicted felon. As such, Razaaq is precluded by federal law from owning or possessing a firearm. (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1).) On April 21, 2021, Manney went to a gun store, a “federal firearms licensee” in Reno, Nev., and arranged to purchase seven firearms. While Manney was in the store checking out the guns, the store clerk noticed that she was continually on her cellphone, talking to someone while taking photographs of the various guns. Upon selecting the guns she wanted, Manney signed an ATF Form 4473 for each firearm, certifying that she was the actual purchaser of the firearms. It was arranged that she would pick them up at a later time in order to give the store the time needed to complete the necessary federal background check before turning the guns over to her.

In the meantime, suspecting that Manney was purchasing the firearms for someone else as a “straw purchaser,” the clerk contacted the local ATF office. An ATF special agent arranged to be present when Manney returned to pick up her guns. After Manney paid for the guns, the special agent contacted her and asked her who she purchased the guns for. Manney said she bought them for herself. Upon a consensual search of her cellphone, however, the agent found numerous incriminating WhatsApp messages between Manney and her son, discussing the firearms purchase.

Convicted in federal court of making false statements on ATF Form 4473 pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(a)(6) and 924(a)(2), Manney appealed. On appeal, she argued that these statutes violated the Second Amendment. The issue, therefore, was whether making it a criminal act to lie on the federal ATF Form 4473 survived the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York Rifle and Pistol Assn Inc. v. Bruen (2022) 597 U.S. 1. In Bruen, the Supreme Court articulated the proper framework for analyzing Second Amendment challenges. Per Bruen: “When the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct.” “The government must then justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” “Only then may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s unqualified command.” (Id., at page 24)

Ultimately, the Ninth Circuit ruled in United States v. Manney (9th Cir. Aug. 19, 2024) 114 F.4th 1048, that lying on a federal document is not protected by the Second Amendment. As noted by the court: “The statute did not prohibit Manney from possessing firearms as evidenced by her ability to purchase a firearm shortly before her interaction with (the special) agent...Nor did it prohibit Manney from (later) transferring those firearms to another individual. All the statute did was prohibit Manney from lying about who the actual purchaser was.

Because the Second Amendment does not protect an individual’s false statements, the conduct § 922(a)(6) regulates falls outside the scope of the Second Amendment’s plain text.” The court also held that it is irrelevant whether the “felon-in-possession” statute (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)), which Razaaq would have been guilty of had his mother given him the guns, is constitutional. This issue is currently before the Ninth Circuit in United States v. Duarte (9th Cir. May 9, 2024) 101 F.4th 657; subsequently vacated for an en banc review. As a result, the court found 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(a)(6) and 924(a)(2) to be constitutional and not subverted by the Bruen test.

Interestingly enough, it is not a violation of federal law to be a straw purchaser. (See Abramski v. United States (June 16, 2014) 573 U.S. 169, at pgs. 178-189.) It is also not illegal to later give the guns to another even though the one who receives them is a felon, rendering the recipient guilty of being a “felon in possession.” The crime is the making of a false statement on the federal forms by which the purchaser lies about who is actually purchasing the firearms. This being the case, Gail Manney was properly convicted for lying on the forms she filled out to purchase the guns for her son.