Opinion ID: 588159
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Legislative Purpose of the 1984 Amendments

Text: 125 The amendments to § 924(c) were included in Chapter 10, Miscellaneous Violent Crime Amendments. 62 Part D of the chapter was titled Mandatory Penalty for Use of a Firearm During a Federal Crime of Violence. 63 This heading described precisely the intent of Congress in amending § 924(c): to ensure that the imposition by judges of enhanced penalties required in the earlier statute would be mandatory. The Senate Judiciary Committee report on this section remarked: 126 Part D of title X is designed to impose a mandatory penalty without the possibility of probation or parole, for any person who uses or carries a firearm during and in relation to a Federal crime of violence. Although present Federal law, section 924(c) of title 18, appears to set out a mandatory minimum sentencing scheme for the use or unlawful carrying of a firearm during any Federal felony, drafting problems and interpretations of the section in recent Supreme Court decisions have greatly reduced its effectiveness as a deterrent to violent crime. 127 S.Rep. No. 98-225, 98th Cong., 2d Sess. 312, reprinted in 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3182, 3490 (emphasis added). 128 The report goes on to describe the problems with Sudduth, Simpson, and Busic in not recognizing that the statute's provision for mandatory enhanced penalties operates independently of other sentences. The majority opinion in this case quotes only part of the Senate Report. The omitted portions are significant, however. 129 Section 924(c) sets out an offense distinct from the underlying felony and is not simply a penalty provision. Simpson v. United States, 435 U.S. 6, 10, 98 S.Ct. 909, 912, 55 L.Ed.2d 70 (1978). Hence, the sentence provided in section 924(c) is in addition to that for the underlying felony and is from one to ten years for a first conviction and from two to twenty-five years for a subsequent conviction. However, section 924(c) is drafted in such a way that a person may still be given a suspended sentence or be placed on probation for his first violation of the section, and it is ambiguous as to whether the sentence for a first violation may be made to run concurrently with that for the underlying offense. Some courts have held that a concurrent sentence may be given. United States v. Sudduth, 457 F.2d 1198 (9th Cir. [sic] 1972); United States v. Gaines, 594 F.2d 541 (7th [6th] Cir.1979). Moreover, even if a person is sentenced to imprisonment under section 924(c), the normal parole eligibility rules apply. 130 In addition to these problems with present section 924(c), the Supreme Court's decisions in Simpson v. United States, and Busic v. United States, have negated the section's use in cases involving statutes, such as the bank robbery statute and assault on Federal officer statute which have their own enhanced, but not mandatory, punishment provisions in situations where the offense is committed with a dangerous weapon. These are precisely the type of extremely dangerous offenses for which a mandatory punishment for the use of a firearm is the most appropriate. 131 S.Rep. No. 98-225 at 312, 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 3490 (emphasis added) (citations omitted). 132 Admittedly, that portion of the Report which refers to distinct offense is confusing. While it could arguably be regarded, in part, as the committee's understanding of § 924(c), read in full context the treatment of Simpson by the Report is ambiguous. Indeed, the full text seems more clearly to suggest the committee was only attempting to correct the Supreme Court's refusal to apply § 924(c) as a sentencing enhancement provision, independent of other enhancement provisions. That interpretation is in keeping with the overall concern of the legislation and the other changes to § 924(c) itself, all of which enhance penalties. In this context, because the same words cannot define both crime and punishment, distinct offense means distinct penalty. 133 Interestingly, the Senate Report also cited Sudduth, but to demonstrate the committee's disagreement with judicial decisions which had refused to apply the most severe penalty under the section. 64 The Report put Sudduth, Simpson, and Busic in the same category as cases which were too reluctant to impose the stiffest penalties available, and then made those enhanced penalties mandatory. 134 The Senate Report articulated the purpose of the 1984 amendments: 135 The Committee has concluded that subsection 924(c) should be completely revised to ensure that all persons who commit Federal crimes of violence, including those crimes set forth in statutes which already provide for enhanced sentences for their commission with a dangerous weapon, receive a mandatory sentence, without the possibility of the sentence being made to run concurrently with that for the underlying offense or for any other crime and without the possibility of a probationary sentence or parole. 136 S.Rep. No. 98-225 at 313, 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 3491 (emphasis added) (footnotes omitted). This concentration on mandatory sentencing provisions in the text of the statute and in the committee report better explains the purpose of the bill than the somewhat misleading citation to Simpson 's dictum that § 924(c) creates an offense distinct from the underlying Federal felony. 65 137 Last, the addition of a definitional section for crimes of violence is further evidence of legislative intent to impose stiffer penalties for any crimes involving firearms. The Report stated: 138 The term crime of violence is defined in Part A of this title.... In essence the term includes any offense in which the use of physical force is an element and any felony which carries a substantial risk of such force. Thus, the section expands the scope of predicate offenses, as compared with current law, by including some violent misdemeanors, but restricts it by excluding non-violent felonies. 139 S.Rep. No. 98-225 at 313 n. 9, 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 3491 n. 9 (emphasis added).