One shot from a handgun can kill someone. So can multiple shots.
You know what else can kill someone? The martial arts.
So can just kicking someone in the head without training. A customer at my work had their son go into a coma, because he got in a fight with someone, and a 5 foot woman later came up and kicked him in the head while he was down, giving him permanent brain damage and putting him in a coma they weren't sure he'd ever wake up from. He ended up waking up, but had permanent brain damage, was blind in one eye, and is unable to walk or even stand without getting dizzy.
The gulf between guns, knives and bare hand fighting isn't quite as vast as most people think it is.
Generally when someone shoots someone in self defense, i'd expect they would call the police. Additionally, whether someone is a sharpshooter or not really isn't going to have any effect on the situation unless for some reason you are drawing guns at each other from across a large area.
Shooters are trained to shoot for center mass at the center of someones chest. This is actually a shot you'll likely survive from. I'd be more afraid of being shot by some amateur who would try and hit my head, or miss my center mass and hit my heart or something.
Additionally... i'd like to see how the martial artist fares against the sharpshooter. Not well.
The "Anything can happen" issue though is likely why in general statistics show when gun laws are repealed, violent crime and shooting goes down.(even when that repeal is caused by an outside source)
When applied it increases.
Which makes sense... after all, despite some perceptions of criminals just being lurking strangers in the street. The reality is the VAST majority of crimes are committed by people who know you... and these people aren't stupid.
Criminals who carry guns, usually aren't carrying guns to murder you. THEY carry their guns for protection as well... and DON'T want to be in a situation where they have to use them because they don't want to be caught... and shooting someone puts you high on the priority list.
It's a deterrent, not just because they're afraid of being shot, but because they recognize that shooting someone is incredibly dangerous.
