A couple of items from Defensive Gun Use (DGU) statistics. Around 80% of DGUs occur at home, and 80% of the time, the firearm is not discharged. Rifles and shotguns make up about a third of the arms used, and handguns make up about two-thirds. However, looking at police shootings with handguns, we see that accuracy is relatively poor. I see no reason to think that civilians would be better than the police, assuming their situations are similar (I feel that civilian encounters are much different than police encounters when the firearm is discharged, so this may not apply).
Given that most people’s home security leaves a lot to be desired, I devote a lot of pages in my book toward improving it, both inside and out. As part of that plan, I recommend a defensive room strategy. The gist of a home security setup like this is that criminals who don’t want to hurt you either don’t show up at your house or run away very quickly when they do show up. As a result, property crime encounters that would have turned violent are avoided. That said, any criminal who remains doesn’t fear getting caught, and that puts them in a different category. Dealing with such a criminal requires a lethal weapon, and the best weapon using a defensive room strategy is a shotgun. Unfortunately, many people that use home defense shotguns do not employ a defensive room strategy. In fact, what they do deploy is quite problematic. Here is what I’ve seen:
- The shotgun is fully decked out and heavy. Imagine walking through your house and finding an intruder in a big room of your home. You tell them to get on the floor. The police are 20 minutes away. Can you hold a heavy shotgun at an intruder for 20 minutes straight?
- The shells utilized are often full-power 12 gauge slugs or buckshot. These rounds will down a grizzly at short range. However, they will also blow through your interior walls like a hot knife through butter. Furthermore, in today’s cookie-cutter home construction, they will blow through your exterior walls as well and likely penetrate a close neighbor’s home.
- Shotguns are often long and challenging to maneuver in hallways and closed-in areas.
- The range is often close in home defense situations. This improves the weapon’s lethality, but don’t expect a lot of spread in your pattern at 10 feet or less.
Many of these problems can be avoided by employing a defensive room strategy. We still need to select ammunition properly. However, there are some other considerations too.
- In a defensive room, you’ll have a defensive position. In this position, your shotgun should be supported by something other than you, such as your mattress. In this case, you need to be aware if you have a pump shotgun, your bed blankets might jam the mechanism. You’ll want to ensure this cannot happen.
- You should store your shotgun securely in your defense room. How you store your shotgun is essential. I would not recommend storing with a round in the chamber (see my post on fast access safes for details). If you have a pump shotgun, you must dry fire on an empty chamber to ensure the action will cycle. Also, you will want to store the shotgun in a way that reduces any damage if you have a negligent discharge removing it from secure storage (again, see my post on fast access safes). Lastly, I would recommend something like a Hornady fast-access safe, where you can line the inside with something that can help stop bullets. I have a level IIIa vest in mine. This helps to provide protection as well to your defensive position.
- One of the reasons I like pump shotguns is they have considerable flexibility with rounds. A 12 gauge will often function with shorties (1 3/4″), 2 3/4″, and 3″ (please verify before purchasing). NOTE: Extensive testing is required, and I would follow-up with the manufacturer’s technical support to ensure compatibility.
- If your defensive room is set up correctly, your room will be dark, and the rest of your house will be lit. Muzzle flash is a consideration as it may temporarily blind you. Be sure to consider this in your ammunition selection.
I don’t know of a more effective close-to-short-range weapon than a shotgun. I highly recommend that you evaluate one for your defense room.