I'm not even so sure it's that big a deal. Why do firearms have to be particularly lethal? They just punch holes in people down range. Spears punch holes in people, arrows & quarrels punch holes in people - a dagger can certainly kill, but only does a d4.
Historically what made firearms so revolutionary wasn't that they were deadlier or longer-ranged than bows but that they required less training and physical ability to use, so you could field more troops armed with them. What made them fearsome to peoples unfamiliar with them was the noise (and that the projectile might not be noted right away), as much as the lethality. Oh, and the sheer amount of smoke from black powder is just crazy, modern powder is rightly called 'smokeless.'
So, if we really want to model firearms well in the game, they'd be 'simple' weapons, that would do decent damage without much regard to who's using them (no stat bonus to damage), and hit reasonably well, again without much regard to training (a static bonus to hit instead of proficiency, perhaps). And, of course, a low RoF, due to reloading, so all those Extra Attacks and such you get at high level are meaningless.
Appealing at low level, meh beyond that.
Stop talking about realism, and start talking about genre conventions. Some genres are realistic, some genres are decidedly unrealistic (even cartoonish), and most are in-between. There's nothing wrong with gaming in any of these genres; but it is super helpful to know what genre you are trying to emulate.
The image of clouds of smoke hovering over a ship's deck during a raging gunfight is very well suited to the swashbuckling-fantasy genre I want, so I'll probably include that somehow (probably as a "DM's discretion" thing).
Something I'd have to just to make a battle interesting, much like how I could rule that the ship is listing to the Starboard side during a battle and everyone on deck is required to make a Acrobatic (Dex) Check or be forced to move 10 feet in the Starboard direction. It's not something that needs to happen all the time, but it's a complication that can happen.The image of clouds of smoke hovering over a ship's deck during a raging gunfight is very well suited to the swashbuckling-fantasy genre I want, so I'll probably include that somehow (probably as a "DM's discretion" thing).
I've heard all sides in such debates way too much to get into it, there's political issues fueling different sides, and it involves autopsy-level detail that'll never be modeled with a hp system.High velocity wounds tear rather than cut, and are much more deadly than knife or arrow wounds. It is a myth that bullets don't do much damage. A small bullet wound is a good bit deadlier than a large knife wound.
'cept for 4e, iff, by 'people' you mean 'minions.'The genre convention is that people who get hit fall over. Very unlike DnD.
High velocity wounds tear rather than cut, and are much more deadly than knife or arrow wounds. It is a myth that bullets don't do much damage. A small bullet wound is a good bit deadlier than a large knife wound.