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These sound like good reasons most people would (realistically) best be served by a shotgun.....?
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When I first read your shotgun comment/question, my immediate thought was: No. But it is a complicated enough question that I could not come up with a quick easy explanation as to why I felt that way. I probably still can't, but will try.
The first analogy I thought of when I read your shotgun comment/question was of somebody complaining about not having enough trunk space (for luggage) in their 4 door family sedan and you suggesting that they buy a pickup truck instead. Yes that addresses luggage capacity, but ......
There are Pros to using a shotgun for self defense, but there are also a lot of Cons. A 12 ga shotgun using 00 buck is a death dealing machine when used within its effective range. If 100 people are shot in the chest with a pistol, on average 6 will die. If 100 people are shot in the chest with a center-fire rifle, on average 17 will die. If 100 people are shot in the chest with a 12 ga, on average 66 will die. There is no firearm available to civilians that is deadlier than the 12 ga.
Now for the Cons: Shotguns carry limited ammo on board and tend to be slow and cumbersome to reload. Shotguns have very stiff recoil that is substantially harder to control for quick, accurate follow up shots. And probably the biggest Con, shotguns have a very limited effective range. A standard cylinder bore shotgun shooting regular 00 buck shells has a 20 yard max effective range. A shotgun with a Vang Comp bored barrel or using Federal TRU Flight ammo has a max effective range of 30 or 35 yards. Maximum effective range for a shotgun is calculated based on the rate of shot spread and the ability to keep all pellets on the target. The human body is typically 20 inches wide and a 00 buck pattern will have typically spread to 20 inches at 20 yards.
So if I use a shotgun to engage somebody (who is actively trying to kill me with a firearm) at 100 yards, what are the odds one of the 00 buck pellets will hit them, what are the odds that hit will be someplace critical? If the person attacking me is not a total idiot, they will probably use cover. So my target may be an exposed elbow, foot or the side of their head. By decreasing the target's size, I just reduced the odds of a pellet hitting that target. Even at 20 yards I could easily miss an exposed elbow or foot, because the pattern created by a 12 ga 00 buck round has a lot of area inside that 20 inch circle not being hit by a pellet.
Inside of 20 yards (such as for home defense) a shotgun may be an excellent choice. In gun unfriendly cities and states it may even be the best choice. But for a general self defense weapon (to be used at some future time, under unknown conditions), I think a rifle offers more versatility and is usually be a better choice for the average person. During the past couple of decades, the Police have moved away from shotguns and gone to rifles because rifles (on average) are more effective/useful. I think the Police were wise to make the transition to rifles.