The Pistol From Connecticut

A man with earlier convictions for assault and battery and for burglary was found in possession of a loaded automatic pistol in 1938. A new federal law made it a crime for anyone previously convicted of a crime of violence to receive a firearm that had been shipped in interstate or foreign commerce, and it declared that simply possessing such a gun was presumptive evidence that it had been received that way. A representative of the manufacturer testified the pistol was made in Connecticut in 1919 and shipped to Chicago. The man testified he had bought it in 1933 or 1934. The defence argued that possession alone proves nothing about how or when a gun was received, so the presumption was unconstitutional.