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One must make sure that a shortened shotgun is
a) safe...done by a gunsmith, not your hacksaw, and
b)legal, as most states have a minimum length requirement for shotguns (gun friendly Virginia I believe, requires an 18" barrel). Cheapest and easiest to buy one factory shortened.

The Russian factory that makes Kalashnikovs offers an AK-47 action shortened 12 guage, available in the USA. Sounds good to me....

Shotguns are even legal, so I understand, in places like the Peoples Republic of the District of Columbia--where no other gun is legal (for us little people).

legal, as most states have a minimum length requirement for shotguns (gun friendly Virginia I believe, requires an 18" barrel).

That's because federal law requires an 18" barrel, unless you want to (and can get the required local LEO signoff) pay the National Firearms Act tax. It has since 1934, IIRC. A short barrelled, < 18", shotgun is what that horrible Miller Supreme Court decsion in 1939 was all about. Too bad the SoB didn't have a Thompson!, which by then were military issue. Even old Justice James McReynolds would have had a hard time believeing the government when they argued that one of those couldn't contribute to the common defense. :)