Any response has to be proportional to the threat
There's a world of difference between a kid with a squirt gun shooting at people verses someone with a machine gun. From the sounds of it, you'd have the police gun them both down.
That plane represented very little threat to public safety. The response was appropriate - keep the idiot from running into anyone and arrest him when he lands.
Now, had he been in a larger plane, such as a Cessna 310 or Piper Navaho, then the amount of damage he could've done would've been many times greater. In that case, harsher methods might've been required. The response has to be proportional to the threat.