Looking down the barrel? Hell, most burglars will be gone about 2 seconds after they hear the round jacked into the chamber. That's one of those sounds you definitely never want to hear behind you.
Damn right about the sound made when you rack a shotgun! When I was a kid I attended a summer camp run by the Indiana State Police, the gunner Sergeant said the sound of a racking a shotgun could be heard even in a noise bar with a fight going on! Face it 9 times out of 10 the sound alone is going to send the guy running home to change his freshly soiled pants. It takes just a second to rack a shell in so you don’t have to have one in the chamber and though you should always treat every gun as if it was loaded, having an empty chamber adds a layer of safety. It also means someone has to rack a shell into it, hard to accidentally do that, hard for a child to do it too, not impossible but hard.
Also a shotgun can easily be reloaded on the ‘run&’ no need to change clips shells in your pocket on in a mounted shell holder can quickly be feed in. As far as someone grabbing it from you a short barreled pistol griped shot gun doesn’t extend that much farther from your body than your extended arm does holding a pistol. There’s also the penatration issued which is mentioned in several of the post #4 buck will knock down your intruder and really mess him up, but you are unlikely to kill a family member or a neighbor on the otherside of a wall from you.