https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-supreme-court-pieces-of-a-gun-enough-to-be-charged-with-illegal-possession/600308009/https://reason.com/volokh/2022/12/21/unassembled-and-incomplete-array-of-shotgun-parts-firearm/Minnesota Supreme Court has upheld a conviction of a man for illegal possession of a firearm, after he was charged with possessing an incomplete and non-operable set of pieces of a shotgun. He had the barrels and receiver but no stock bolt or washer, and could not assemble it into a fireable weapon without additional parts. Yet the judge in the trial instructed jurors that any set of firearm components constituted a firearm regardless of being inoperable or incomplete, and didn't leave that question to the jury. And the supreme court didn't leave it to the jury or the legislature.
The dissents basically just recite the tautological fact of A = A and are mystified how the majority came to the conclusion that A =/= A;
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"The statute prohibits possession of an object called a firearm — a weapon designed to be used for attack or defense," Thissen wrote. "The reason the Legislature prohibits persons who have been convicted of a crime of violence from possessing a firearm is because it is concerned that the person will use the firearm as a weapon and hurt someone. A person who has some of, but not all of, the parts of a firearm such that the firearm cannot be assembled sufficiently to be used as designed — as a weapon — does not possess a firearm."