Deanimator
Member
I live in an inner ring Cleveland suburb and I wouldn't use EITHER for home defense.I used to be of the opinion that a 18" pump shotgun was the way to go for serious home defense against motivated and resolute home invader/s. After I had the opportunity to handle both a shotgun and an AR15 carbine in a realistic training environment, I came to the conclusion that a run of the mill AR-15 carbine is far more effective in all areas of concern in regards to CQB and home defense: magazine capacity, maneuverability, reliability, speed, platform customization...and, most importantly for the civilian defender, accuracy of fire. For me, it was a no brainer.
Another real eye opener was to actually see how 223 compared to how 00 buck and slugs penetrated drywall and 2x4 modern dwelling construction and the very real possibility of endangering family and close proximity neighbors that the shotgun demonstrated repeatedly.
Very recently I ran into a colleague who I have respected for a very long time for his experience and knowledge. I was very surprised to learn that he favors a 12ga self-loading shotgun loaded with 00 Buck as his weapon of choice for HD. To this day he believes that the shotgun is superior to the AR15 carbine in terms of power and effectiveness of the one-shot-stop...and was of the opinion that accuracy, capacity and maneuverability are grossly over-hyped these days.
I know this subject has been discussed in the past ad nauseum, but I am still interested in hearing from both sides of the fence on the shotgun vs AR15 for HD debate.
I live in a small apartment with narrow hallways.
There's no way that I can maneuver ANY non-NFA long gun in my home without banging into things. NEITHER a shotgun NOR a rifle is of much more utility in MY environment than a bamboo cavalry lance or a naginata.
My self-defense firearm is whatever handgun I carried that day, almost always a 3 1/2" M1911.
Generalizing on defense tools, absent SPECIFIC knowledge of the environment is worthless.