The point is that if you need not to kill them, then the gun option is off the table. Special target shots are difficult, and any shot places bystanders at risk.
In cases like this one where a gun is not the right option, the thought/training has got to be "how to we separate this guy from the knife without killing him (i.e. shooting him/using our guns at all).
And I say all this not as someone who is totally against guns, but as someone who has trained with guns, and owns them. They’re good for one thing, and that’s hitting something with a super high energy chunk of metal. That’s about it. Whether it’s a target or a person, the #1 rule is not to point a gun at anything you do not intend to destroy. So… if the idea is to try to defuse the situation and potentially save this guy/stop the threat, yeah, gun’s off the table. These guys need to learn that just because you have it, doesn’t mean you have to use it.
