After a month I guess you can see here that everyone will have different opinions/advice. I'm not claiming to be right, but certainly don't think I'm wrong:
I don't agree with the age old wisdom of pump shotguns. The truth is, they are really easy to short stroke under stress and even with a wide open choke they do not have much spread at home defense distances. In practice this means that the reliability and ease of hitting the target advantages that people believe in are diminished in a real fight.
There's also the belief that it won't penetrate walls like a rifle or pistol, but the reality is that anything that reliably stops humans also goes through walls. Slower moving, heavier projectiles tend to travel greater distances when penetrating barriers. That means that your 5.56 might not travel as far as your 9mm after going through a wall.
Massas Ayoob originally sold me on the use of a pistol in home defense. There are detractors for sure but you get the most freedom of motion, a free hand to perform actions or even to carry one of your kids, an option to decouple your light source from your firearm so that you can identify targets without pointing a gun at them, and the highest availability of training in most areas.
If I did use a long gun for home defense, it would be a carbine with a can on it.
End of the day, get something reliable that you can confidently and competently shoot (aka get training as well). I also think that would be a striker fired 9mm. And personally, I think it should be a Glock. Go take a one day course that lets your rent a Glock and see how you feel with it after a full day of professional instruction.
Also, I don't hate DA/SA and used to carry one, but recognize that you have an additional skill to learn with these vs striker guns because there is a transition from the first shot to follow up shots that's not needed for DAO, SA, or striker guns.
I don't agree with the age old wisdom of pump shotguns. The truth is, they are really easy to short stroke under stress and even with a wide open choke they do not have much spread at home defense distances. In practice this means that the reliability and ease of hitting the target advantages that people believe in are diminished in a real fight.
There's also the belief that it won't penetrate walls like a rifle or pistol, but the reality is that anything that reliably stops humans also goes through walls. Slower moving, heavier projectiles tend to travel greater distances when penetrating barriers. That means that your 5.56 might not travel as far as your 9mm after going through a wall.
Massas Ayoob originally sold me on the use of a pistol in home defense. There are detractors for sure but you get the most freedom of motion, a free hand to perform actions or even to carry one of your kids, an option to decouple your light source from your firearm so that you can identify targets without pointing a gun at them, and the highest availability of training in most areas.
If I did use a long gun for home defense, it would be a carbine with a can on it.
End of the day, get something reliable that you can confidently and competently shoot (aka get training as well). I also think that would be a striker fired 9mm. And personally, I think it should be a Glock. Go take a one day course that lets your rent a Glock and see how you feel with it after a full day of professional instruction.
Also, I don't hate DA/SA and used to carry one, but recognize that you have an additional skill to learn with these vs striker guns because there is a transition from the first shot to follow up shots that's not needed for DAO, SA, or striker guns.
