LOL. I see, so illegally discharging a firearm doesn't count as using it?
It's the other way around. Does the "use" of a firearm, by an LEO against a someone committing a criminal offense, constitute an "illegal discharge"...? An LEO can discharge his firearm without doing so illegally. Officers are authorized to do this, and they do it every single day.
And because the courts have ruled that the "discharge" of a firearm does not constitute a separate crime or even the element of a crime, merely a sentencing guideline.
Look at it this way : once you have found the agents not guilty of attempted murder (as this jury decided), then it obviously becomes far more difficult to convict them of "using" a firearm in relation to a "crime".
This is because the "not guilty" verdict is a declaration by the jury that the discharging of the officers' firearms was justified under the circumstances and, thus, still fell within the parameters of the sidearms' authorized use.
Thus, it is logical to deduce that their actions do not contsitutute a violation of the 924(c) statute.
The word "use" requires that the jurors take a far more expansive view of the entire circumstances, whereas the word "discharge", narrowly focuses attention upon the firing of the gun itself.
If we are to treat our LEO's fairly, while judging their actions, then we have to take a far more comprehensive view of the circumstances in question.