David James Vee-Arnis-Jitsu Gun Defense

how long does it take to train to get to that level?

I was getting ready to test for my fourth degree Black Belt in Shaolin before I chose to do other things instead. It takes a lot of training time and sacrifice for get to that level, but even then I carried a gun. I don't know how many real fights you have had in your life, but my experience has been that even in the ones that I "won", I got injured. The purpose of that handgun is to keep that distance and not get hurt.
My general opinion is that most martial artists have no real concept of how effective or ineffective their style is unless they have actually had to use it against a real opponent.

While yes close quarters skills are a great asset I feel the big take away is - "avoid getting into a situation where someone can point a gun at your head".