Muscarello v. U.S.

Decision Date08 June 1998
Docket Number961654
Citation524 U.S. 125,141 L.Ed.2d 111,118 S.Ct. 1911
PartiesFrank J. MUSCARELLO, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES. Donald E. CLEVELAND and Enrique Gray-Santana, Petitioners, v. UNITED STATES
CourtU.S. Supreme Court
Syllabus*

A person who "uses or carries a firearm'' "during and in relation to'' a "drug trafficking crime'' is subject to a 5-year mandatory prison term. 18 U.S.C. §924(c)(1). In the first case, police officers found a handgun locked in the glove compartment of petitioner Muscarello's truck, which he was using to transport marijuana for sale. In the second case, federal agents at a drug-sale point found drugs and guns in the trunk of petitioners' car. In both cases, the Courts of Appeals found that petitioners had carried firearms in violation of §924(c)(1).

Held: The phrase "carries a firearm'' applies to a person who knowingly possesses and conveys firearms in a vehicle, including in the locked glove compartment or trunk of a car, which the person accompanies. Pp. ____-____.

(a) As a matter of ordinary English, one can "carry firearms'' in a wagon, car, truck, or other vehicle which one accompanies. The word's first, or basic, meaning in dictionaries and the word's origin make clear that "carry'' includes conveying in a vehicle. The greatest of writers have used "carry'' with this meaning, as has the modern press. Contrary to the arguments of petitioners and the dissent, there is no linguistic reason to think that Congress intended to limit the word to its secondary meaning, which suggests support rather than movement or transportation, as when, for example, a column "carries'' the weight of an arch. Given the word's ordinary meaning, it is not surprising that the Federal Circuit Courts have unanimously concluded that "carry'' is not limited to the carrying of weapons directly on the person but can include their carriage in a car. Pp. ____-____.

(b) Neither the statute's basic purpose-to combat the "dangerous combination'' of "drugs and guns,'' Smith v. United States, 508 U.S. 223, 240, 113 S.Ct. 2050, 2060, 124 L.Ed.2d 138-nor its legislative history supports circumscribing the scope of the word "carry'' by applying an "on the person'' limitation. Pp. ____-____.

(c) Petitioners' remaining arguments to the contrary-that the definition adopted here obliterates the statutory distinction between "carry'' and "transport,'' a word used in other provisions of the "firearms'' section of the United States Code; that it would be anomalous to construe "carry'' broadly when the related phrase "uses . . . a firearm,'' 18 U.S.C. §924(c)(1), has been construed narrowly to include only the "active employment'' of a firearm, Bailey v. United States, 516 U.S. 137, 144, 116 S.Ct. 501, 506, 133 L.Ed.2d 472; that this Court's reading of the statute would extend its coverage to passengers on buses, trains, or ships, who have placed a firearm, say, in checked luggage; and that the "rule of lenity'' should apply because of statutory ambiguity-are unconvincing. Pp. ____-____.

No. 96-1654, 106 F.3d 636, and No. 96-8837, 106 F.3d 1056, affirmed.

BREYER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which STEVENS, O'CONNOR, KENNEDY, and THOMAS, JJ., joined.

GINSBURG, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which REHNQUIST, C.J., and SCALIA and SOUTER, JJ., joined.

Robert H. Klonoff, Washington, DC, for petitioner.

Norman S. Zalkind, Newtonville, MA, appointed by court, for petitioner.

James A. Feldman, Washington, DC, for respondent.

Justice BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court.

A provision in the firearms chapter of the federal criminal code imposes a 5-year mandatory prison term upon a person who "uses or carries a firearm'' "during and in relation to'' a "drug trafficking crime.'' 18 U.S.C. §924(c)(1). The question before us is whether the phrase "carries a firearm'' is limited to the carrying of firearms on the person. We hold that it is not so limited. Rather, it also applies to a person who knowingly possesses and conveys firearms in a vehicle, including in the locked glove compartment or trunk of a car, which the person accompanies.

I

The question arises in two cases, which we have consolidated for argument. The defendant in the first case, Frank J. Muscarello, unlawfully sold marijuana, which he carried in his truck to the place of sale. Police officers found a handgun locked in the truck's glove compartment. During plea proceedings, Muscarello admitted that he had "carried'' the gun "for protection in relation'' to the drug offense, App. in No. 96-1654, p. 12, though he later claimed to the contrary, and added that, in any event, his "carr[ying]'' of the gun in the glove compartment did not fall within the scope of the statutory word "carries.'' App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 96-1654, p. 10a.

The defendants in the second case, Donald Cleveland and Enrique Gray-Santana, placed several guns in a bag, put the bag in the trunk of a car, and then traveled by car to a proposed drug-sale point, where they intended to steal drugs from the sellers. Federal agents at the scene stopped them, searched the cars, found the guns and drugs, and arrested them.

In both cases the Courts of Appeals found that the defendants had "carrie[d]'' the guns during and in relation to a drug trafficking offense. 106 F.3d 636, 639 (C.A.5 1997); 106 F.3d 1056, 1068 (C.A.1 1997). We granted certiorari to determine whether the fact that the guns were found in the locked glove compartment, or the trunk, of a car, precludes application of §924(c)(1). We conclude that it does not.

II
A

We begin with the statute's language. The parties vigorously contest the ordinary English meaning of the phrase "carries a firearm.'' Because they essentially agree that Congress intended the phrase to convey its ordinary, and not some special legal, meaning, and because they argue the linguistic point at length, we too have looked into the matter in more than usual depth. Although the word "carry'' has many different meanings, only two are relevant here. When one uses the word in the first, or primary, meaning, one can, as a matter of ordinary English, "carry firearms'' in a wagon, car, truck, or other vehicle that one accompanies. When one uses the word in a different, rather special, way, to mean, for example, "bearing'' or (in slang) "packing'' (as in "packing a gun''), the matter is less clear. But, for reasons we shall set out below, we believe Congress intended to use the word in its primary sense and not in this latter, special way.

Consider first the word's primary meaning. The Oxford English Dictionary gives as its first definition "convey, originally by cart or wagon, hence in any vehicle, by ship, on horseback, etc.'' 2 Oxford English Dictionary 919 (2d ed. 1989); see also Webster's Third New International Dictionary 343 (1986) (first definition: "move while supporting (as in a vehicle or in one's hands or arms)''); The Random House Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged 319 (2d ed. 1987) (first definition: "to take or support from one place to another; convey; transport'').

The origin of the word "carries'' explains why the first, or basic, meaning of the word "carry'' includes conveyance in a vehicle. See The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology 146 (1988) (tracing the word from Latin "carum,'' which means "car'' or "cart''); 2 Oxford English Dictionary, supra, at __ (tracing the word from Old French "carier'' and the late Latin "carricare,'' which meant to "convey in a car''); The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology 148 (C. Onions ed. 1966) (same); The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology, supra, at __ (explaining that the term "car'' has been used to refer to the automobile since 1896).

The greatest of writers have used the word with this meaning. See, e.g., the King James Bible, 2 Kings 9:28 (" [H]is servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem''); id., Isaiah 30:6 (" [T]hey will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses''). Robinson Crusoe says, " [w]ith my boat, I carry'd away every Thing.'' D. Defoe, Robinson Crusoe 174 (J. Crowley ed. 1972). And the owners of Queequeg's ship, Melville writes, "had lent him a [wheelbarrow], in which to carry his heavy chest to his boarding-house.'' H. Melville, Moby Dick 43 (U. Chicago 1952). This Court, too, has spoken of the "carrying'' of drugs in a car or in its "trunk.'' California v. Acevedo, 500 U.S. 565, 572-573, 111 S.Ct. 1982, 1987-1988, 114 L.Ed.2d 619 (1991); Florida v. Jimeno, 500 U.S. 248, 249, 111 S.Ct. 1801, 1802-1803, 114 L.Ed.2d 297 (1991).

These examples do not speak directly about carrying guns. But there is nothing linguistically special about the fact that weapons, rather than drugs, are being carried. Robinson Crusoe might have carried a gun in his boat; Queequeg might have borrowed a wheelbarrow in which to carry, not a chest, but a harpoon. And, to make certain that there is no special ordinary English restriction (unmentioned in dictionaries) upon the use of "carry'' in respect to guns, we have surveyed modern press usage, albeit crudely, by searching computerized newspaper databases-both the New York Times database in Lexis/Nexis, and the "US News'' database in Westlaw. We looked for sentences in which the words "carry,'' "vehicle,'' and "weapon'' (or variations thereof) all appear. We found thousands of such sentences, and random sampling suggests that many, perhaps more than one third, are sentences used to convey the meaning at issue here, i.e., the carrying of guns in a car.

The New York Times, for example, writes about "an ex-con'' who "arrives home driving a stolen car and carrying a load of handguns,'' Mar. 21, 1992, section 1, p. 18, col. 1, and an "official peace officer who carries a shotgun in his boat,'' June 19, 1988, section 12WC, p. 2, col. 1; cf. The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, a Desk Book of Guidelines for Writers and Editors, forword (L. Jordan rev. ed. 1976) ...

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