USA v. One TRW, Model M14
Firearm Forfeitures

Eastern District of Kentucky at Lexington
06a0103p.06
2006/03/20

KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge. This case involves a forfeiture of the Defendant weapon pursuant to 26 U.S.C. § 5872(a) because the weapon was found to be a machinegun within the terms of the National Firearms Act (“NFA”), 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b), and was not registered to the Claimant-Appellant, William K. Alverson (“Alverson”), in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d). Alverson claims that the Government failed to satisfy the burden required to justify the forfeiture because it did not show that the Defendant firearm was “designed to shoot” automatically or could “be readily restored to shoot” automatically under the NFA’s definition of a machinegun. 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b). For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the district court’s judgment granting the United States’s motion for summary judgment.