State v. Vasquez-Rubio

Under Oregon statutory law, “[a] person commits the crime of unlawful possession of a machine gun * * * if the person knowingly possesses any machine gun * * * not registered as required under federal law.” ORS 166.272.

The issue in this case is whether the state is required to prove as an element of that crime that the machine gun that defendant knowingly possessed was “not registered as required under federal law” or whether, instead, the burden is on defendant to prove affirmatively that the gun is registered as required under federal law. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the…