May 29, 2026·2:24-cr-00266-SMB-1·Unpublished·By James Taylor
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the conviction of Sydaniel Gordon Sampson for possession of a firearm by a prohibited possessor. The court held that Sampson's Second Amendment challenge to the statute was foreclosed by prior binding precedent.
Sampson appealed his conviction for possession of a firearm by a prohibited possessor in violation of Section eighteen of the United States Code, Section nine hundred twenty-two, subsection (g), paragraph one. He argued that the statute violated the Second Amendment as applied to him.
The court’s reasoning
The panel unanimously concluded that Sampson’s Second Amendment claim was foreclosed by the en banc decision in United States versus Duarte. The court also noted that any challenge to the supervised release conditions became moot upon the revocation of his supervised release.
What it means going forward
The decision reinforces that the prohibition on firearm possession by felons remains enforceable in the Ninth Circuit despite Second Amendment challenges.
