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"Use" of a firearm in a drug transaction
The Supreme Court ruled today in Watson v. US. Watson concerned a defendant who got a lengthy sentence for a use of a firearm in drug offense, where he bartered drugs in exchange for getting a gun.
The Court, per Justice Souter, holds that *receiving* the gun in such a trade is not "using" it. The majority distinguishes earlier case law holding that *giving* the gun in such a deal can be using it. Justice Ginsburg concurs with a note that she'd overrule the earlier case relating to giving, as well: the likely Congressional intent was to punish "use" in the sense of using a gun as a tool, not just as property for barter.
Comments
Frick and Frack at their best...
Posted by: reloader at December 10, 2007 12:28 PM
I wonder how the justices square that in their mind with a similar decision several years back that a firearm "carried" in the trunk of a car during a drug transaction is "carried" for the purposes of a similar law...
To be fair, Ginsburg dissented from that opinion, and also drafted this Watson opinion.
Posted by: Jim at December 10, 2007 12:37 PM