171616P.pdf   05/11/2018  United States  v.  Keith Hardin
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  17-1616
   U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Kansas City   
   [PUBLISHED] [Gruender, Author, with Colloton, Circuit Judge, and P.K. 
   Holmes, District Judge] 
   Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. Where defendant contended the 
   handgun he carried was inoperable, the district court did not err in 
   refusing to admit evidence concerning the guns operability; given that 
   defendant never suggested that the evidence would show that the handgun 
   had been fundamentally altered, there was no basis for concluding that the 
   pistol had changed from what defendant conceded it was originally 
   manufactured to be a gun - a weapon used to expel projectiles; admission 
   of the proposed evidence would have yielded substantial juror confusion 
   without having probative value regarding the issue of weapon design; 
   government proved the handgun qualified under the federal definition of a 
   firearm despite its missing and broken pieces; proof that the weapon is 
   operable is not required because the plain language of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 
   921(a)(3) requires only that the weapon is designed to expel a projectile 
   by the action of an explosive; defendant's Armed Career Criminal Act 
   sentence must be vacated in light of this court's en banc decision in 
   United States v. Naylor, 887 F.3d 397 (8th Cir. 2018) (en banc), and the 
   matter is remanded for resentencing.