The tactical situation always determines the preferred weapon. If you are ensconced in a locked bedroom, a shotgun makes great sense. You won't be moving about with it (where its deficiencies are most noticeable) and bad guy has to come through a choke point. Here, racking the slide when you hear noise outside the bedroom may be sufficient to avoid a fight. In my house, however, I have to move out of the master bedroom and dominate the hallway in order to protect everyone. That dictates, IMHO, a high capacity (it's hard to carry an extra magazine while naked) pistol with high energy cartridges. Which is what I've chosen. If all goes well, I'll be in the cast iron tub with only the top of my head and the gun barrel showing. :-) However, I do have an empty shotgun which I will rack before I move (to get the benefit of the menacing noise but not to leave a loaded weapon behind). I also have adopted a cheap mechanism to gain advantage. I have a night light in the living room but the hallway (at the end of which I'll be) is pitch dark. This backlights the bad guy as he enters the hallway and degrades his vision somewhat. P. S. Whenever I've gone hiking/camping in Alaska grizzly country, I've carried a 375 H&H magnum rifle. My buddy carries one too. We've seen, though, lots of people with 12 gauge shotguns loaded with slugs. The only people in the Alaska back country without guns are Left Coast and East Coast tourists. ************************************************** Professor Joseph Olson, J.D., LL.M. o- 651-523-2142 Hamline University School of Law (MS-D2037) f- 651-523-2236 St. Paul, MN 55113-1235 c- 612-865-7956 [email protected]
>>> "Guy Smith" <[email protected]> 02/04/09 6:51 PM >>> “Self-defense” is a rather broad concept. Taking all common situations, shotguns are effective for self-defense in many cases.
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