Cite as: 526 U. S. 275 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
Respondent, however, argues that for venue purposes "the New Jersey kidnapping is completely irrelevant to the firearm crime, because respondent did not use or carry a gun during the New Jersey crime." Brief for Respondent 12. In the words of one amicus, § 924(c)(1) is a "point-in-time" offense that only is committed in the place where the kidnaping and the use of a gun coincide. Brief for National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as Amicus Curiae 11. We disagree. Several Circuits have determined that kidnaping, as defined by 18 U. S. C. § 1201 (1994 ed. and Supp. III), is a unitary crime, see United States v. Seals, 130 F. 3d 451, 461-462 (CADC 1997); United States v. Denny-Shaffer, 2 F. 3d 999, 1018-1019 (CA10 1993); United States v. Godinez, 998 F. 2d 471, 473 (CA7 1993); United States v. Garcia, 854 F. 2d 340, 343-344 (CA9 1988), and we agree with their conclusion. A kidnaping, once begun, does not end until the victim is free. It does not make sense, then, to speak of it in discrete geographic fragments. Section 924(c)(1) criminalized a defendant's use of a firearm "during and in relation to" a crime of violence; in doing so, Congress proscribed both the use of the firearm and the commission of acts that constitute a violent crime. It does not matter that respondent used the .357 magnum revolver, as the Government concedes, only in Maryland because he did so "during and in relation to" a kidnaping that was begun in Texas and continued in New York, New Jersey, and Maryland. In our view, § 924(c)(1) does not define a "point-in-time" offense when a firearm is used during and in relation to a continuing crime of violence.
As we said in United States v. Lombardo, 241 U. S. 73 (1916), "where a crime consists of distinct parts which have different localities the whole may be tried where any part can be proved to have been done." Id., at 77; cf. Hyde v. United States, 225 U. S. 347, 356-367 (1912) (venue proper
the "during and in relation to" language, the underlying crime of violence is a critical part of the § 924(c)(1) offense.
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