Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 175.0

524US1

Unit: $U79

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

130

MUSCARELLO v. UNITED STATES

Opinion of the Court

Times Manual of Style and Usage, a Desk Book of Guidelines
for Writers and Editors, foreword (L. Jordan rev. ed. 1976)
(restricting Times journalists and editors to the use of
proper English). The Boston Globe refers to the arrest of a
professional baseball player “for carrying a semiloaded auto-
matic weapon in his car.” Dec. 10, 1994, p. 75, col. 5. The
Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph speaks of one “Russell”
who “carries a gun hidden in his car.” May 2, 1993, p. B1,
col. 2. The Arkansas Gazette refers to a “house” that was
“searched” in an effort to ﬁnd “items that could be carried
in a car, such as . . . guns.” Mar. 10, 1991, p. A1, col. 2. The
San Diego Union-Tribune asks, “What, do they carry guns
aboard these boats now?” Feb. 18, 1992, p. D2, col. 5.

Now consider a different, somewhat special meaning of the
word “carry”—a meaning upon which the linguistic argu-
ments of petitioners and the dissent must rest. The Oxford
English Dictionary’s twenty-sixth deﬁnition of “carry” is
“bear, wear, hold up, or sustain, as one moves about; habitu-
ally to bear about with one.”
2 Oxford English Dictionary,
at 921. Webster’s deﬁnes “carry” as “to move while sup-
porting,” not just in a vehicle, but also “in one’s hands
or arms.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary,
supra, at 343. And Black’s Law Dictionary deﬁnes the en-
tire phrase “carry arms or weapons” as

“To wear, bear or carry them upon the person or in the
clothing or in a pocket, for the purpose of use, or for
the purpose of being armed and ready for offensive or
defensive action in case of a conﬂict with another per-
son.” Black’s Law Dictionary 214 (6th ed. 1990).

These special deﬁnitions, however, do not purport to limit
the “carrying of arms” to the circumstances they describe.
No one doubts that one who bears arms on his person “car-
ries a weapon.” But to say that is not to deny that one may
also “carry a weapon” tied to the saddle of a horse or placed
in a bag in a car.