Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/13pdf/12-158_6579.pdf
Page Number: 18

Cite as:  572 U. S. ____ (2014) 

15 

Opinion of the Court 

B 

We do not find any such clear indication in section 229. 
“Chemical  weapon”  is  the  key  term  that  defines  the  stat-
ute’s reach, and it is defined extremely broadly.  But that 
general  definition  does  not  constitute  a  clear  statement
that  Congress  meant  the  statute  to  reach  local  criminal
conduct. 

In fact, a fair reading of section 229 suggests that it does 
not have as expansive a scope as might at first appear.  To 
begin, as a matter of natural meaning, an educated user of 
English  would  not  describe  Bond’s  crime  as  involving  a 
“chemical weapon.”  Saying that a person “used a chemical
weapon”  conveys  a  very  different  idea  than  saying  the 
person “used a chemical in a way that caused some harm.”
The  natural  meaning  of  “chemical  weapon”  takes  account 
of  both  the  particular  chemicals  that  the  defendant  used
and the circumstances in which she used them. 

When  used  in  the  manner  here,  the  chemicals  in  this 
case  are  not  of  the  sort  that  an  ordinary  person  would
associate  with  instruments  of  chemical  warfare.    The 
substances  that  Bond  used  bear  little  resemblance  to  the 
deadly  toxins  that  are  “of  particular  danger  to  the  objec-
tives  of  the  Convention.”    Why  We  Need  a  Chemical 
Weapons Convention and an OPCW, in Kenyon & Feakes
17  (describing  the  Convention’s  Annex  on  Chemicals,  a
nonexhaustive  list  of  covered  substances  that  are  subject
to special regulation).  More to the point, the use of some-
thing as a “weapon” typically connotes “[a]n instrument of
offensive  or  defensive  combat,”  Webster’s  Third  New 
International  Dictionary  2589  (2002),  or  “[a]n  instrument
of  attack  or  defense  in  combat,  as  a  gun,  missile,  or 
sword,” American Heritage Dictionary 2022 (3d ed. 1992). 
But no speaker in natural parlance would describe Bond’s
feud-driven  act  of  spreading  irritating  chemicals  on 
—————— 

the same here.