David Gerbier v. M. Francis Holmes, Acting District Director, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service John Ashcroft, U.S. Attorney General.

REAVLEY, Circuit Judge,

dissenting.

I diverge from the majority on the construction of the definition of a “drug trafficking crime” in 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). The words themselves seem to me to point to any state felony that would be conduct punishable under federal law, rather than necessarily to a crime that would be punishable as a felony under federal law. I might join Chief Judge Becker’s masterful opinion, however, if we were surveying a new route; but too many circuit courts have chosen the other way and I would follow them in the interest of consistency and uniformity of federal law.

I would affirm.