The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on September 1 upheld Joseph Paul Berger’s federal convictions for possessing machine guns and unregistered silencers.
Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote the opinion, joined in the result by Judges Felipe Restrepo and Cindy Chung. The panel said machine guns are not in common use for lawful purposes and that governments may ban weapons used mainly for crime. The silencer registration rule, the court said, is a “minimal, objective hoop” and does not violate the Second Amendment as applied here.
Berger had argued the Second Amendment protected the guns and devices found at his home. The district court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania had already rejected that claim. The Third Circuit agreed and affirmed.
The ruling is binding in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the Virgin Islands. It does not change Ohio statutes by itself. Ohio still follows federal machine-gun and National Firearms Act rules.
The case is United States v. Berger, No. 24-2125.
