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April 2, 2026 Get Citation Alerts Download PDF Add Note

United States v. Tony Wilkinson

Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

• Citations: None known
• Docket Number: 24-5778
• Precedential Status: Non-Precedential
• Panel: Jane Branstetter Stranch, John Kenneth Bush, John Baylor Nalbandian

• Judges: Jane Branstetter Stranch; John K. Bush; John B. Nalbandian

• Opinion

• Authorities (8)

• Cited By (0)

• Summaries (0)

• Similar Cases (0)

• PDF

Combined Opinion

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION
File Name: 26a0156n.06

No. 24-5778
FILED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Apr 02, 2026
FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT KELLY L. STEPHENS, Clerk

)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
)
Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED
) STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR
v. ) THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF
) KENTUCKY
TONY F. WILKINSON, )
Defendant-Appellant. ) OPINION
)

Before: STRANCH, BUSH, and NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judges.

BUSH, J. (p. 7), delivered a separate concurring opinion in which NALBANDIAN, J.,
joined.

PER CURIAM. Tony Wilkinson pleaded guilty to a single count of possessing a firearm

as an individual with a felony conviction, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g)(1). Wilkinson’s past

convictions include burglary, drug trafficking (twice), fleeing or evading police (twice), driving

under the influence (three times), driving without a license (seven times), driving without

insurance (four times), reckless driving, and criminal mischief. For the following reasons, we

AFFIRM his conviction.

I.

On February 28, 2021, two Kentucky State Police troopers received complaints of an

armed individual trafficking drugs and driving a pickup truck with the back window taped. The

troopers saw a vehicle fitting that description and, after spotting an equipment violation (an unlit

license plate), initiated a traffic stop. One of the troopers recognized the driver as Wilkinson based

on previous interactions. As the troopers approached the truck, they saw Wilkinson move his right
No. 24-5778, United States v. Wilkinson

hand behind his back before placing both of his hands on the steering wheel. The troopers asked

Wilkinson to get out of the vehicle due to his nervous behavior and the information that he was

armed. When Wilkinson stepped out, he admitted that he had tucked a handgun between his back

and the driver’s seat, which he claimed he had bought for his son. The gun was loaded. At the

time, Wilkinson’s criminal history included felony convictions for burglary and drug trafficking

(twice), as well as a lengthy record of misdemeanors, including multiple convictions for driving

under the influence and fleeing and evading law enforcement.

A grand jury in the Eastern District of Kentucky indicted Wilkinson on one count of being

a felon in possession of a firearm under 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g)(1). Wilkinson moved to dismiss the

indictment based on the Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association,

Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), asserting that § 922(g)(1) was unconstitutional on its face and as

applied to him. The district court denied the motion, and Wilkinson entered a guilty plea

conditioned on his right to appeal the denial of that motion.

On August 23, 2024, nine days after Wilkinson was sentenced, we decided United States

v. Williams. 113 F.4th 637, 657 (6th Cir. 2024). Wilkinson argues on appeal that § 922(g)(1) is

unconstitutional as applied to him because he is not dangerous and that he is entitled to a post-

Williams opportunity to prove as much on remand before the district court.

II.

The Second Amendment “protect[s] an individual’s right to carry a handgun for

self-defense outside the home,” subject to restrictions that are “consistent with this Nation’s

historical tradition of firearm regulation.” Bruen, 597 U.S. at 10, 17. In United States v. Rahimi,

the Supreme Court clarified that a challenged gun regulation need not have an exact “historical

twin” to satisfy this standard. 602 U.S. 680, 692 (2024). Applying Bruen and Rahimi, we held

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No. 24-5778, United States v. Wilkinson

in Williams that § 922(g)(1) “is constitutional on its face and as applied to dangerous people.”

113 F.4th at 662–63. We explained that “our nation’s history and tradition demonstrate that

Congress may disarm individuals they believe are dangerous” provided that “each member of that

disarmed group has an opportunity to make an individualized showing that he himself is not

actually dangerous.” Id. To prove that § 922(g)(1) is unconstitutional as applied to him, a

defendant has the burden to show that he is not dangerous given his specific circumstances. Id. at

1. The dangerousness determination is “fact-specific,” based on “a criminal defendant’s entire

criminal record—not just the predicate offense” that made him a felon, and must “tak[e] account

of the unique circumstances of the individual, including details of his specific conviction[s].” Id.

at 657–58, 663. We review an as-applied constitutional challenge to § 922(g)(1) de novo. United

States v. Gailes, 118 F.4th 822, 824 (6th Cir. 2024).

Cases like this one, where the defendant was convicted of violating § 922(g)(1) after Bruen

but prior to Williams, present an additional complication because the district court was not on

notice that it should allow the defendant the “opportunity to make an individualized showing that

he himself is not actually dangerous.” Williams, 113 F.4th at 663. In such cases, we have asked

whether “the record evidence would have indisputably led the district court to conclude that [the

defendant] was dangerous enough to be constitutionally disarmed”; when the answer to

this question is “yes,” remand is unnecessary. United States v. Henson, No. 24-3494, 2025 WL

1009666, at *7 (6th Cir. Apr. 3, 2025); see United States v. Fordham, No. 24-1491, 2025 WL

318229, at *5 (6th Cir. Jan. 28, 2025). When a defendant’s “dangerousness is self-evident, there

is no need for a remand that would confirm what the record already reveals.” United States

v. Robinson, No. 24-1469, 2025 WL 2105111, at *2 (6th Cir. July 28, 2025) (citation modified).

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No. 24-5778, United States v. Wilkinson

To guide the inquiry, we counseled in Williams that certain classes of crimes are likely to

be more or less probative of dangerousness. 113 F.4th at 658. “The first such group is crimes

against the person,” including “murder, rape, assault, and robbery,” which will almost always show

dangerousness under Rahimi because they are “violent act[s]” that “speak directly to whether an

individual is dangerous.” Id. The “second category of crimes, while not strictly crimes against

the person, may nonetheless pose a significant threat of danger.” Id. at 659. This category includes

crimes like drug trafficking and burglary that “often lead[] to violence” or “create[] the possibility

of a violent confrontation between the offender and the [victim].” Id. (first citing Harmelin

v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957, 1002 (1991) (Kennedy, J., concurring in part and concurring in the

judgment); and then quoting Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 588 (1990)). The third group

includes crimes that “cause no physical harm to another person or the community,” including mail

fraud and making false statements; “many of these crimes don’t make a person dangerous.” Id.

Nonetheless, Williams emphasizes that we should not use a “categorical” approach to

dangerousness akin to the test courts apply under the Armed Career Criminal Act. Id. at 660; see

generally Descamps v. United States, 570 U.S. 254 (2013). Instead, we must look to the

circumstances of each past conviction and determine holistically whether the defendant poses a

danger to the community. See Williams, 113 F.4th at 660.

Wilkinson has three felony convictions. He was convicted of burglary in 2003, and on two

occasions, in 2013 and again in 2016, Wilkinson sold oxycodone pills to a cooperating witness,

resulting in separate drug trafficking convictions each time. We have suggested that both burglary

and drug trafficking are highly probative of dangerousness because they are offenses that “while

not strictly crimes against the person, may nonetheless pose a significant threat of danger” and

“often lead[] to violence.” Williams, 113 F.4th at 659. Wilkinson committed the most recent of

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No. 24-5778, United States v. Wilkinson

these offenses—the 2016 drug trafficking offense—less than five years prior to the date of the

instant offense, February 28, 2021.

We note that Wilkinson’s burglary conviction presents a few challenges for our review

in this case. First, the record lacks information about the underlying circumstances of this

offense—according to the presentence report, “[t]he details of this case are unknown,” R. 48,

PageID 189—which allows consideration of only the fact of Wilkinson’s conviction, without any

facts underlying the offense. In addition, not all state burglary offenses are created equal. “At

common law, burglary was confined to unlawful breaking and entering a dwelling at night with

the intent to commit a felony.” Quarles v. United States, 587 U.S. 645, 649 (2019). Wilkinson

was convicted of Kentucky third-degree burglary, which means only that he “knowingly enter[ed]

or remain[ed] unlawfully in a building . . . with the intent to commit a crime.” Ky. Rev. Stat.

§ 511.040. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to weigh the probative value of Wilkinson’s

burglary conviction.

The inquiry here, however, cannot end with Wilkinson’s felonies—we must consider his

“entire criminal record,” Williams, 113 F.4th at 657, which contains many misdemeanors including

several DUI convictions, reckless driving, several other driving offenses, criminal mischief, public

intoxication, drug possession, and two convictions for fleeing and evading the police. All told, his

criminal record includes an average of one criminal conviction a year since he turned eighteen.

The repeated DUIs are particularly significant when combined with his drug- and alcohol-related

offenses because, like the defendant whose conviction we affirmed in United States v. Goins,

Wilkinson’s “record reveals a dangerous pattern of misuse of alcohol and motor vehicles, often

together.” 118 F.4th 794, 804 (6th Cir. 2024). This case is distinguishable from Goins in that

Wilkinson was not on probation at the time of his § 922(g)(1) offense, see id. at 804–05; but in

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No. 24-5778, United States v. Wilkinson

that case, DUI and drug possession were Goins’s most serious offenses—his record did not include

the burglary and drug trafficking offenses at issue here, see id. at 796; Williams, 659. Wilkinson’s

two misdemeanor convictions for fleeing and evading the police are also probative of

dangerousness, as that is an offense that can “lead[] to violence,” Williams, 113 F.4th at 659, and

the record indicates that he was intoxicated during both offenses.

When considered in the aggregate, this lengthy criminal record of felony and misdemeanor

offenses demonstrates that Wilkinson “was dangerous enough to be constitutionally disarmed”

under § 922(g)(1). Henson, 2025 WL 1009666, at *7. We see no indication that the district court

would come to a different conclusion on remand, especially given that Wilkinson makes no effort

in his briefing to “tell us what ‘evidence’ he would have presented on the dangerousness question.”

United States v. Poe, No. 24-6014, 2025 WL 1342340, at *2 (6th Cir. May 8, 2025).

III.

For these reasons, we AFFIRM.

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No. 24-5778, United States v. Wilkinson

JOHN K. BUSH, concurring. I agree with the per curiam disposition of this case. I write

separately because I believe that the offense conduct also supports disarming Wilkinson.

Wilkinson was caught in possession of a loaded firearm while driving under the influence

of an illegal drug to such an extent that he struggled to stand upon exiting his vehicle. More

alarming, as the troopers approached his truck, Wilkinson was manipulating the gun while trying

to hide it behind his back. Wilkinson’s decision to drive while high on methamphetamine and

handle a loaded firearm support a finding that he is a dangerous felon. Founding-era examples

indicate that the Second Amendment allows for disarmament of a person while under the influence

of an intoxicant. See United States v. Goins, 118 F.4th 794, 806 (6th Cir. 2024) (Bush, J.,

concurring in part and in the judgment).

Also, we held that § 922(g)(3), which disarms users of illegal drugs, was constitutional as

applied to a defendant who had been “shooting a rifle in the direction of a propane tank in a

residential neighborhood while drunk and high.” United States v. VanOchten, 150 F.4th 552, 560

(6th Cir. 2025) (quotation marks omitted). That precedent is instructive here. Although there is

no evidence that Wilkinson fired his weapon, it is undisputed that he possessed the gun while under

the influence of methamphetamine, and there was a real risk that he could have mishandled that

firearm, resulting in death or injury, given that he reached for the gun as officers approached his

car.

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