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Mandatory minimum sentences for those who use firearms in the commission of some crimes are too broad and fail to recognize the difference between armed thugs and police officers who are armed by the state and duty-bound to enforce the law.

And for Toronto Police Const. James Forcillo, his lawyer Lawrence Gridin told a judge Thursday, that sentence carries an additional year because the weapon he used to shoot Sammy Yatim is deemed a “restricted firearm” by the Criminal Code.

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“That’s the gun he’s issued!” Gridin told Ontario Superior Court Judge Ed Then. “That’s the gun he has to carry.”

The 33-year-old Forcillo was convicted earlier this year of attempted murder in the July 27, 2013, shooting of the teenager Yatim on a downtown streetcar by the same jury that minutes earlier acquitted him of second-degree murder.

And the mandatory minimum for attempted murder where a firearm is used is four years, but five years if the gun is restricted or prohibited under the Code.