Most cops never have to, many do not practice sufficiently to be decent shots.
Anyone who carries a gun should shoot regularly, most just qualify once a year.
I just purchased a system that has a laser bullet that goes into the chamber, and it integrates with your smart phone to let you practice dry firing, and it has helped me a great deal to learn some muscle memory, shoot with my eyes open and such, but...I am still a lousy shot at anything past 40 feet.
What I wonder about is probably what any person at any point in history who has ever had to handle a weapon wonders about: “If the time comes, and I have to do it...can I do it?”
They have training where I work on “Code Silver” situations, an armed shooter in the institution. They tell you to run away.
I am no hero, I have never been in combat, but if I saw a guy walk by me in the hall with a loaded weapon heading towards a group of my co-workers, mentally, it seems wrong to run the other way as instructed. I know why and how, but it feels like it goes against the grain of every value I was taught growing up.
I don’t know if I could do anything to stop a shooter. I might well run the other way as they want me to, and hide in some bathroom “Shelter in Place” bulls**t “haven” they want you to go to.
But in my heart, I feel like I could not consign my unsuspecting co-workers to their fate. It just seems wrong. Hopefully I never have to find out.
“Most cops never have to, many do not practice sufficiently to be decent shots.”
But yet they almost always have good enough aim to kill someone’s family pet.