18 U.S.C. § 36
Section 36 · Drive-by shooting
This is § 60008 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 21 court decisions — leading case United States v. Wallace (2006)
Most recently applied in United States v. Zavien Canada (June 2024)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Definition.—In this section, “major drug offense” means—
(1) a continuing criminal enterprise punishable under section 408(c) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 848(c));
(2) a conspiracy to distribute controlled substances punishable under section 406 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 846) section 1 1013 of the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act (21 U.S.C. 963); or
(3) an offense involving major quantities of drugs and punishable under section 401(b)(1)(A) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 841(b)(1)(A)) or section 1010(b)(1) of the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act (21 U.S.C. 960(b)(1)).
(b) Offense and Penalties.—(1) A person who, in furtherance or to escape detection of a major drug offense and with the intent to intimidate, harass, injure, or maim, fires a weapon into a group of two or more persons and who, in the course of such conduct, causes grave risk to any human life shall be punished by a term of no more than 25 years, by fine under this title, or both.
(2) A person who, in furtherance or to escape detection of a major drug offense and with the intent to intimidate, harass, injure, or maim, fires a weapon into a group of 2 or more persons and who, in the course of such conduct, kills any person shall, if the killing—
(A) is a first degree murder (as defined in section 1111(a)), be punished by death or imprisonment for any term of years or for life, fined under this title, or both; or
(B) is a murder other than a first degree murder (as defined in section 1111(a)), be fined under this title, imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1996—Subsec. (a)(1), (2). Pub. L. 104–294 substituted “408(c)” for “403(c)” in par. (1) and “Export” for “Export Control” in par. (2).
Effective Date of 1996 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 104–294 effective Sept. 13, 1994, see section 604(d) of Pub. L. 104–294, set out as a note under section 13 of this title.
Short Title
Section 60008(a) of Pub. L. 103–322 provided that: “This section [enacting this section] may be cited as the ‘Drive-By Shooting Prevention Act of 1994’.”