“I know nothing about firearms. But what is the empirical basis for your claim? I thought law enforcement officers, in particular, were trained to shoot to disable, rather than kill, their targets.”
Not to be snarky, but your first sentence is correct. The rest is completely wrong. Police are trained only to pull their firearms when deadly force may be needed, and then only to shoot when deadly force is actually necessary.
And they are taught to shoot to kill, not disable.
There are a few very rare exceptions, for example a Columbus, Ohio PD sniper shooting a gun out of a mentally disturbed man’s hand. That happened several years ago. Those are VERY rare.
This sentence of mine was wrong: “And they are taught to shoot to kill, not disable”
PapaBear3625 said it properly: “Police are trained to shoot at center-mass (chest), and keep shooting until the perp is no longer a threat. In a practical sense, if the perp drops his weapon, then no shot need be fired. If the perp does not, then they will empty the magazine into him, reload, and re-assess.”
They are NOT taught to “wing” or “disable,” but to stop the threat. By shooting at the center of mass, they are taking a shot that is at least potentially lethal.