Seriously, though, if you don't have one already, buy a shotgun. And an AR-15. But do buy a shotgun.
Shotguns are useful. They excel in the vast majority of home defense situations due to their lack of penetrative power (unless you go slug, in which case penetrative capacity is somewhat of a concern). When loaded with buckshot, a shotgun becomes the "point and shoot" weapon. You don't need to be able to precisely aim, or really even aim at all, to hit an intruder. As long as the barrel is pointed in the target's general direction one or multiple pellets will hit. And that's usually enough to end a threat.
Besides the above, and on a more lighthearted note, shotguns are just fun to shoot. They're far more visceral than most other guns. AR-15s don't have any noteworthy recoil, and handguns are a quick snap. Shotguns have an actual kick to them. You don't feel it in your wrist, like with handguns, or your shoulder, as you do with an AR, you feel it in a significant portion of your body. Of all the sorts of guns, a shotgun is the one that, to me, feels most like what we consider a weapon.
Also, shotguns are cheap. A good one costs fewer hundreds of dollars than you have fingers on one hand. You can dump the extra money you thought you were going to spend (because I thought shotguns were expensive when I bought mine) on accessories. Magazine extensions, pistol grips, side-saddles. All that stuff.
But buy a shotgun. They're a lot of fun, and a good thing to have around in general.
Seriously, though, if you don't have one already, buy a shotgun. And an AR-15. But do buy a shotgun.
Shotguns are useful. They excel in the vast majority of home defense situations due to their lack of penetrative power (unless you go slug, in which case penetrative capacity is somewhat of a concern). When loaded with buckshot, a shotgun becomes the "point and shoot" weapon. You don't need to be able to precisely aim, or really even aim at all, to hit an intruder. As long as the barrel is pointed in the target's general direction one or multiple pellets will hit. And that's usually enough to end a threat.
Besides the above, and on a more lighthearted note, shotguns are just fun to shoot. They're far more visceral than most other guns. AR-15s don't have any noteworthy recoil, and handguns are a quick snap. Shotguns have an actual kick to them. You don't feel it in your wrist, like with handguns, or your shoulder, as you do with an AR, you feel it in a significant portion of your body. Of all the sorts of guns, a shotgun is the one that, to me, feels most like what we consider a weapon.
Also, shotguns are cheap. A good one costs fewer hundreds of dollars than you have fingers on one hand. You can dump the extra money you thought you were going to spend (because I thought shotguns were expensive when I bought mine) on accessories. Magazine extensions, pistol grips, side-saddles. All that stuff.
But buy a shotgun. They're a lot of fun, and a good thing to have around in general.