## Facts

- Jorge M., a 16-year-old minor, was on in-home probation for a controlled-substance offense with a condition that he not possess dangerous or deadly weapons and submit to search and seizure.
- Police and probation officers conducted a home visit and searched the area of a bunk bed that Jorge identified as where he kept his personal possessions.
- Officers found multiple rifles in the bunk-bed area, including an SKS-45 semiautomatic rifle fitted with a detachable “banana clip” magazine.
- The prosecution alleged that the SKS-45’s features brought it within the statutory definition of an “assault weapon” under the Assault Weapons Control Act (AWCA).
- The juvenile court sustained a Welfare and Institutions Code § 602 petition for assault-weapon possession (Penal Code § 12280(b)) and for firearm-related probation violations, adjudged Jorge a ward of the court, and ordered camp placement.
- The Court of Appeal reversed the assault-weapon finding for lack of substantial evidence under its view that § 12280(b) required actual knowledge of the weapon’s prohibited characteristics, but it sustained the probation-violation finding.

## Issues

1. Whether Penal Code § 12280(b) defines a strict-liability offense or requires proof of a mental state regarding the weapon’s assault-weapon characteristics.
2. If a mental state is required, whether the prosecution must prove actual knowledge of the characteristics or whether it is enough that the defendant knew or reasonably should have known of them.
3. Whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain the assault-weapon possession finding under the correct scienter standard.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of California held that Penal Code § 12280(b) is not a strict-liability offense.
- The court rejected a requirement of actual knowledge of the firearm’s assault-weapon characteristics.
- The court adopted a negligence-based standard: the prosecution must prove the defendant knew or reasonably should have known the firearm had the characteristics making it an assault weapon.
- Applying that standard, the court found the evidence sufficient and reversed the Court of Appeal to reinstate the juvenile court’s assault-weapon possession finding.

## Legal Principles

- When a criminal statute lacks express scienter language, courts determine legislative intent on mens rea through statutory construction and consideration of factors bearing on whether the offense is properly treated as strict liability.
- Penal Code § 12280(b) requires proof that the defendant knew or reasonably should have known of the firearm characteristics that make the weapon an “assault weapon” under the AWCA.
- The statute does not require proof that the defendant actually knew the firearm’s characteristics rendered it an “assault weapon” as a legal classification.
- A defendant’s negligent failure to ascertain visible, salient characteristics of a firearm can satisfy the mens rea required for assault-weapon possession, absent exceptional circumstances such as extraordinarily obscure features or possession too fleeting to permit examination.

## Conclusion

The court construed Penal Code § 12280(b) to require a negligence-type scienter—knowledge or reason to know of the weapon’s qualifying characteristics—and held the evidence supported the juvenile court’s finding that Jorge possessed an assault weapon under that standard.


In re Jorge M., 23 Cal. 4th 866 (Cal. 2000)