United States v. John Robert Hall

OPINION

PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge:

In this appeal, we are called upon to interpret the statutory definition of “short-barreled shotgun,” found at 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(6), to determine whether Hall, convicted of a drug trafficking offense and of using a firearm in the commission of that offense, should have his sentence enhanced for using a short-barreled shotgun. The district court concluded that the statutory definition of short-barreled shotgun was ambiguous, and, applying the rule of lenity, declined to impose on Hall a mandatory ten year sentence. Because we find that the definition of…