A new opinion out of San Antonio (home to the Alamo) contains the elements of lawyers, guns and money in a decision about exempting firearms. In re Wilkinson, No. 07-50189 (Bankr. W.D. Tex. 4/10/09). While I enjoyed the analysis, I don't think I would have arrived at the same conclusion. (Of course, I don't wear a black robe, so whether I agree or disagree is somewhat academic).
Dr. Wilkinson had guns. Lots of guns. Some of them could shoot. Others were mounted on the wall with brass plates describing them. The Debtor sought to keep two guns under the firearms exemption, but also sought to keep the mounted guns as home furnishings. The trustee cried foul, arguing that "firearms are firearms and cannot be claimed under another category such as 'home furnishings.'"
The Debtor's first shot (pun intended) was to point to a statute which said that antique or curio guns manufactured before 1899 were not guns. Texas Penal Code Sec. 46.01. This was a nice try, since the creative debtor's lawyer found a statute which said that the mounted guns were not legally firearms. However, this shot was easily deflected by the judge. The Penal Code dealt with guns which could not be possessed by felons. Since guns which cannot go bang are not inherently dangerous in the hands of a felon, their possession should not be criminalized. However, the statute didn't really answer the question of whether antique firearms mounted on plaques should be excluded from the definition of firearms under an exemption statute.
Next, the court considered the definition of firearm in common parlance. The court noted that:
Notably, none of these definitions excludes antique firearms or guns from the definition of what constitutes a firearm. None of these definitions requires that the item be in working order to constitute a firearm.Opinion, p. 11.
The Court then went on an interesting historical analysis which demonstrated that guns have not always been sancrosanct in Texas. The Court noted that in Choate v. Redding, 18 Tex. 579 (1857), the Texas Supreme Court bemoaned the fact that there was no exemption for guns in Texas. This was especially troubling because Texas law required that every able-bodied man bring a gun in connection with their militia service. (This was back in the good old days when gun ownership was not only allowed but mandated!) Thus, if a creditor levied upon a debtor's non-exempt gun and he was called up for militia service, the debtor could be punished for showing up disarmed.
The lackadaisical legislature did not allow a gun to be exempted until 1870 and tardily expanded this exemption to two guns in 1973. The court concluded that because the legislature had to be dragged kicking and screaming to allow even two guns to be exempted that it would not allow more than that to be exempted under the guise of home furnishings.
I find the historical analysis interesting. I had always thought that the exemption for two guns was meant to allow Pa to shoot one gun out the front door while Ma defended the back of the house. Since the exemption for two guns did not come around until 1973 when the risk of marauding indians was substantially diminished, this assumption was probably incorrect. Hopefully none of my clients who I told this story to will ask for their money back.
However, I think that the court was asking the wrong question. The Debtor sought to exempt the mounted firearms as home furnishings rather than as firearms. Thus, the relevant question should be whether a mounted gun which doesn't go bang could be considered to be a home furnishing. A home furnishing is something that is used to furnish a home. (While I don't have any authority for this proposition, it is based on the close proximity between home and furnishing in the statute). Texans are granted great leeway in deciding how they will furnish their homes. They may decide to decorate their homes with tasteful artwork bought in galleries in Santa Fe and Taos or they may decide to build elaborate displays of Lone Star beer bottles and photographs of road kill. Likewise, both a display case containing pre-Columbian pottery and a collection of sweatstained tshirts from the Capital 10,000 neatly mounted in a shadow box could be a home furnishing. How you furnish your home is largely in the eyes of the beholder.
In my mind, whether a gun is exempt as a gun or a home furnishing depends on how it is actually used. If it is kept in a gun safe with suitable ammunition nearby, it is only exempt as a firearm or possibly as a tool of the trade in the case of a law enforcement officer. On the other hand, if it is mounted and the wall and doesn't go bang, then it is probably being used as an adornment or decoration and thus would fit the definition of a home furnishing. Just because the same item could potentially be exempted under one category should not prohibit it from being claimed under another applicable provision. Function, not origin, should determine the appropriate category for exemption. The mounted firearms seem an easy case to me. The harder case would be the debtor who decorated the inside of his closet with $60,000 worth of gold bullion. If the interest in decorating with gold arose on the eve of bankruptcy and the gold was not prominently displayed to visitors, that would probably not be a real home furnishing.
4 comments:
Just because it is mounted on the wall doesn't mean it doesn't go "bang". I suspect much of the value of the mall mounted "furnishings" is, ultimately, their ability to go "bang"!
I think they should have been exempted as a home security apparatus, although if they were non-operable, that might not have succeeded.
Antiques and collectibles are also non-exempt in 7s unless you use your wild card. Seems pickled to me.
I think though you missed a very important precedent. The Movie "Vacation" as you may or may not recall, the shotgun used to shoot the bear in the (you know what) was actually a lamp. A working lamp at that! So maybe you can bifurcate the exemption in that case. 1/2 firearm 1/2 lamp?
Under Texas court rulings, the "not a firearm" exception for pre-1899 firearms fails if you use the firearm to commit a crime, e.g., aggravated robbery with a pre-1899 firearm is still aggravated robbery. Also, a person (say) carrying an pre-1899 firearm without a permit must be able to prove by positive means that the firearm is pre-1899.
So Texas courts do make exceptions that convert pre-1899 firearms to firearm status. Interestingly, none of these exceptions treats using such guns as home furnishings or refers to their functionality.
Also, under both Texas and federal law, a "firearm" is the reciever, whether the gun is functional or not. E.g., a reciever alone must goe thru all the FFL background check, etc. stuff. So I question the judges rationale here.
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