236
Opinion of the Court
the word "use" and the structure and language of the statute, we are not in any position to disagree.
The dissent suggests that our interpretation produces a "strange dichotomy" between "using" a firearm and "carrying" one. Post, at 246. We do not see why that is so. Just as a defendant may "use" a firearm within the meaning of § 924(c)(1) by trading it for drugs or using it to shoot someone, so too would a defendant "carry" the firearm by keeping it on his person whether he intends to exchange it for cocaine or fire it in self-defense. The dichotomy arises, if at all, only when one tries to extend the phrase " 'uses . . . a firearm' " to any use " 'for any purpose whatever.' " Ibid. For our purposes, it is sufficient to recognize that, because § 924(d)(1) includes both using a firearm for trade and using a firearm as a weapon as "us[ing] a firearm," it is most reasonable to construe § 924(c)(1) as encompassing both of those "uses" as well.
Finally, it is argued that § 924(c)(1) originally dealt with use of a firearm during crimes of violence; the provision concerning use of a firearm during and in relation to drug trafficking offenses was added later. Ibid. From this, the dissent infers that "use" originally was limited to use of a gun "as a weapon." That the statute in its current form employs the term "use" more broadly is unimportant, the dissent contends, because the addition of the words " 'drug trafficking crime' would have been a peculiar way to expand its meaning." Ibid. Even if we assume that Congress had intended the term "use" to have a more limited scope when it passed the original version of § 924(c) in 1968, but see supra, at 229-231, we believe it clear from the face of the statute that the Congress that amended § 924(c) in 1986 did not. Rather, the 1986 Congress employed the term "use" expansively, covering both use as a weapon, as the dissent admits, and use as an item of trade or barter, as an examination of § 924(d) demonstrates. Because the phrase "uses . . . a firearm" is broad enough in ordinary usage to cover use of a
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