William O. Douglas

“ The Act requires no specific intent or knowledge that the hand grenades were unregistered. It makes it unlawful for any person 'to receive or possess a firearm which is not registered to him.' [12] By the lower court decisions at the time that requirement was witten into the Act the only knowledge required to be proved was knowledge that the instrument possessed was a firearm. ”

“ Being in Los Angeles is not per se blameworthy. The mere failure to register, we held, was quite 'unlike the commission of acts, or the failure to act under circumstances that should alert the doer to the consequences of his deed.' Id., at 228, 78 S.Ct., at 243. ”

“ Its manifest purpose is to require every person dealing in drugs to ascertain at his peril whether that which he sells comes within the inhibition of the statute, and if he sells the inhibited drug in ignorance of its character, to penalize him. ”

“ At the time of Haynes any possessor of a weapon included in the Act was compelled to disclose the fact of his possession by registration at any time he had acquired possession, a provision which we held meant that a possessor must furnish potentially incriminating information which the Federal Government made available to state, local, and other federal officials. Id., at 95 100, 88 S.Ct., at 729-732. Under the present Act [3] only possessors who lawfully make, manufacturere, or import firearms can and must register them; the transferee does not and cannot register. ”

“ Nardello, 393 U.S. 286, 89 S.Ct. 534, 21 L.Ed.2d 487.
* We conclude that the amended Act does not violate the Self-Incrimination Clause of the Fifth Amendment which provides that no person 'shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.' As noted, a lawful transfer of a firearm may be accomplished only if it is already registered. The transferor-not the transferee-does the registering. The transferor pays the transfer tax and receives a stamp [7] denoting payment which he affixes to the application submitted to the Internal Revenue Service. ”