Cite as: 508 U. S. 223 (1993)
Scalia, J., dissenting
meant § 924(c)(1) to address. We therefore hold that a criminal who trades his firearm for drugs "uses" it during and in relation to a drug trafficking offense within the meaning of § 924(c)(1). Because the evidence in this case showed that petitioner "used" his MAC-10 machine gun and silencer in precisely such a manner, proposing to trade them for cocaine, petitioner properly was subjected to § 924(c)(1)'s 30-year mandatory minimum sentence. The judgment of the Court of Appeals, accordingly, is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
Justice Blackmun, concurring.
I join the Court's opinion in full because I understand the discussion in Part II-B not to foreclose the possibility that the "in relation to" language of 18 U. S. C. § 924(c)(1) requires more than mere furtherance or facilitation of a crime of violence or drug-trafficking crime. I agree with the Court that because petitioner's use of his MAC-10 meets any reasonable construction of the phrase, it is unnecessary to determine in this case the precise contours of "in relation to" as it appears in § 924(c)(1). See ante, at 238.
Justice Scalia, with whom Justice Stevens and Justice Souter join, dissenting.
Section 924(c)(1) mandates a sentence enhancement for any defendant who "during and in relation to any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime . . . uses . . . a firearm." 18 U. S. C. § 924(c)(1). The Court begins its analysis by focusing upon the word "use" in this passage, and explaining that the dictionary definitions of that word are very broad. See ante, at 228-229. It is, however, a "fundamental principle of statutory construction (and, indeed, of language itself) that the meaning of a word cannot be determined in isolation, but must be drawn from the context in which it is used." Deal v. United States, ante, at 132. That is particularly true of a
word as elastic as "use," whose meanings range all the way
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