From U.S. v. Reyna, decided yesterday by Judge Robert Miller, Jr. (N.D. Ind.) (for a case reaching the opposite result, see this post):
The Heller Court made clear that the Second Amendment excludes "those weapons not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes." This limit on the Second Amendment right arises from the Second Amendment's text; the Heller Court explained that the plain meaning of "militia" and the relationship between the Second Amendment's operative clause and prefatory clause show that the Second Amendment protects common weapons used for lawful purposes. This limitation comes from the text of the Second Amendment, so whether a particular type of gun is typically used by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes is a proper question at the first step of the N.Y. State Rifle analysis.
Guns with obliterated serial numbers belong to "those weapons not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes" so possession of such guns isn't within the Second Amendment's scope. Heller. Guns with obliterated serial numbers are useful for criminal activity because identifying who possessed a firearm is more difficult when the serial number is destroyed. By using a gun without a serial number, a criminal ensures he has a greater higher likelihood of evading justice.
Mr. Reyna might be right that a deserialized gun is just as useful for self-defense as a gun with its serial number intact, but that doesn't suggest that deserialized guns are typically used by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes. A law-abiding citizen who uses a gun for self-defense has no reason to prefer a deserialized gun to a gun with serial number intact. That a law-abiding citizen could use a gun with an obliterated serial number for lawful self-defense isn't evidence that guns with obliterated serial numbers are typically used by law-abiding citizens for lawful self-defense.
