Court Opinion

ID: 9480464
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:48:44.082724+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:42.388547
License: Public Domain

SENTELLE, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
While I am in total agreement with the conclusion of the Court and in substantial agreement with the reasoning of Judge Thomas’ careful opinion, I write separately, if briefly, for a distinct, finite purpose. I find the opinion entirely correct as to the facts of this case and the law applied thereto. But, by stating that in the general case charging “use” of a firearm in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1), “the government, at a minimum, must show that a *1582particular defendant has actually or constructively possessed a particular firearm in order to prove that he has ‘used’ it.” Maj. op. at 8, the Court has gone beyond the holding necessary to determine this case. On the present facts, the government did not offer evidence of possession or any other evidence that Long had used the firearm, as the Court’s opinion well establishes. That, however, is all that is necessary to decide the controversy before us. There may be- other cases in which evidence sufficient to support a jury verdict of “use” would appear without fitting the technical rubric of possession. The majority’s opinion at footnote 8 points out the acting in concert possibilities, and there may be other ways in which a defendant engaged in a drug transaction can “use” a firearm possessed by some other person to protect the defendant’s own drug enterprise. What the quantum of evidence necessary for such other concept of use might be, I would leave for the case that presents the question.