Usually in places where guns are disabled the third option is robber robs you and gets away. As a specific American band would sing "Sad but true".

Very rare for anyone to have any kind of gun here . The thieves had knives

Do you believe that petty-theft is a shootable offense?

There must be a line between a starving child stealing bread and an armed vault heist. Where is the line where it becomes okay to start blasting?