Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 172.0

524US1

Unit: $U79

[09-08-00 13:44:09] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 524 U. S. 125 (1998)

127

Opinion of the Court

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 consoli-
dated for argument. Petitioner 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 hand-
gun 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 con-
trary, 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.

Petitioners in the second case, Donald Cleveland and En-
rique Gray-Santana, placed several guns in a bag, put the
bag in the trunk of a car, and then traveled by car to a pro-
posed 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 petitioners
had “carrie[d]” the guns during and in relation to a drug
trafﬁcking offense.
106 F. 3d 636, 639 (CA5 1997); 106 F. 3d
1056, 1068 (CA1 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 applica-
tion of § 924(c)(1). We conclude that it does not.

II
A

We begin with the statute’s language. The parties vigor-
ously contest the ordinary English meaning of the phrase