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Opinion of the Court
judge to decide. As petitioners note, our decision in Jones concluded, in a similar situation, that treating facts that lead to an increase in the maximum sentence as a sentencing factor would give rise to significant constitutional questions. See 526 U. S., at 239-252. Here, even apart from the doctrine of constitutional doubt, our consideration of § 924(c)(1)'s language, structure, context, history, and such other factors as typically help courts determine a statute's objectives, leads us to conclude that the relevant words create a separate substantive crime.
First, while the statute's literal language, taken alone, appears neutral, its overall structure strongly favors the "new crime" interpretation. The relevant statutory sentence says: "Whoever, during and in relation to any crime of violence . . . , uses or carries a firearm, shall . . . be sentenced to imprisonment for five years, and if the firearm is a . . . machinegun, . . . to imprisonment for thirty years." § 924(c)(1). On the one hand, one could read the words "during and in relation to a crime of violence" and "uses or carries a firearm" as setting forth two basic elements of the offense, and the subsequent "machinegun" phrase as merely increasing a defendant's sentence in relevant cases. But, with equal ease, by emphasizing the phrase "if the firearm is a . . . ," one can read the language as simply substituting the word "machinegun" for the initial word "firearm"; thereby both incorporating by reference the initial phrases that relate the basic elements of the crime and creating a different crime containing one new element, i. e., the use or carrying of a "machinegun" during and in relation to a crime of violence.
The statute's structure clarifies any ambiguity inherent in its literal language. The first part of the opening sentence clearly and indisputably establishes the elements of the basic federal offense of using or carrying a gun during and in relation to a crime of violence. See United States v. Rodriguez-Moreno, 526 U. S. 275, 280 (1999). Congress
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