Background
Noah Craddock was arrested in November two thousand twenty following a slow speed pursuit. Law enforcement discovered a disassembled Glock pistol and ammunition. The firearm had two serial numbers: one fully visible on the slide and one partially scratched off on the frame. Craddock, a felon, pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a firearm under Section eighteen United States Code Section nine hundred twenty-two subsection G one. The Probation Office recommended a four-level enhancement under Section two K two point one subsection B four subsection B one subsection I of the two thousand twenty-four U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual. The District Court applied the enhancement, finding that characters on the partially visible serial number were not legible to the naked eye. Craddock appealed the decision.
The court’s reasoning
The court exercised plenary review of the District Court’s interpretation of the Guidelines. It began with the text of Section two K two point one subsection B four subsection B one subsection I, which increases the base offense level if any firearm had a serial number modified to be illegible or unrecognizable to the unaided eye. The court defined the terms any, a, modified, and illegible using standard dictionaries. It concluded that any firearm refers to an unspecified number of a particular class and that a serial number means one or some. The court held that the enhancement applies if a firearm has at least one serial number that was modified to be unreadable. The presence of a separate legible serial number does not prohibit the enhancement. The court rejected Craddock’s argument that the two thousand twenty-four amendment required all serial numbers to be altered, noting the Commission intended to resolve circuit splits on the term altered. The court found that Craddock possessed a handgun with a serial number marred to the point of illegibility.
What it means going forward
Sentencing courts may apply the four-level enhancement for altered serial numbers even when a firearm retains one legible serial number. This clarifies that the enhancement focuses on the existence of at least one modified serial number rather than requiring all serial numbers on a weapon to be altered.