## Facts

- Leon Foster was investigated and arrested in connection with methamphetamine manufacturing.
- During a traffic stop while Foster drove a pickup truck, officers searched the truck.
- In the truck bed, under a snap-down tarp, officers found a zipped bag containing a loaded 9mm semiautomatic pistol.
- Officers also found drug-related items in the truck bed, including a scale, plastic baggies, and written price notes.
- Foster was convicted of methamphetamine possession (21 U.S.C. § 844) and of carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime (18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)).
- Foster appealed only the § 924(c)(1) conviction, arguing the evidence was insufficient to prove he “carried” the firearm as the statute requires.

## Issues

1. Whether “carry” under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1) requires that a firearm be immediately available for use by the defendant during and in relation to the predicate drug offense.
2. Whether a firearm located in a zipped bag under a tarp in the bed of a pickup truck satisfies the § 924(c)(1) “carry” element.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit reversed Foster’s § 924(c)(1) conviction.
- The court held the government must prove the defendant transported the firearm in a manner making it immediately available for use.
- Because the gun was in the truck bed, inside a zipped bag, under a snap-down tarp, it was not immediately available to Foster while driving.
- The court rejected a broader definition of “carry” that would cover any transportation of a gun in a vehicle regardless of accessibility.

## Legal Principles

- For § 924(c)(1) “carry” liability, the government must show transportation of the firearm in a way that makes it immediately available for use during and in relation to the predicate offense.
- “Carry” is not satisfied by mere presence of a firearm somewhere in the vehicle when the firearm is not realistically accessible to the defendant at the relevant time.
- When statutory language in a criminal statute remains genuinely ambiguous after standard interpretive tools are applied, the rule of lenity supports the narrower construction.

## Conclusion

The court limited § 924(c)(1) “carry” to situations where the defendant transports a firearm in a manner that keeps it immediately available for use, and it reversed Foster’s conviction because the firearm, secured in the truck bed under layers of covering, was not accessible during the drug offense.


United States v. Foster, 133 F.3d 704 (9th Cir. 1998)