I’m considering purchasing a firearm for home defense, but the folks that I know here in AR are advising me that a shotgun is not your best option.
I live in an apartment - not small, but the distance between my front door and my bedroom is not all that great. Is the general opinion that a handgun is preferable to a shotgun for home defense?
Also, should I purchase some kind of illumination device for the weapon? A mounted flash light? It’s pretty dark where I live and I doubt I’d have time to turn on a light - which would probably be a bad idea anyway.
Whatever you finally decide to purchase..., spend time and ammo becoming fully proficient with it! Some people purchase a shotgun believing that it will have a shot pattern wide enough to make up for their faulty aim (IT WON'T). Shotguns DO intimidate more and "may" make a bad guy run the other way BUT, if you are nervously waving the barrel around..., he or she WILL JUST GRAB IT AWAY FROM YOU. Also, while a barrel mounted flashlight will aid your vision..., it will also represent a TARGET for your opponent!
Rather than wavering and putting too much thought into it ask them to take you shooting and try some different things.
You may find pistols are not your thing. You may find they are just the thing for you.
Usually, a shotgun has larger or more easily actuated safeties and mechanisms. Better for fumbling around with in the dark and under stress.
Practice and practice some more until you are able to manipulate your weapon without even thinking.
Pistol bullets might penetrate walls and hit your neighbors in the next apartment. A shotgun loaded with fine shot (”field load”) would be safer. Nothing says intimidation like the “clack-clack” of a pump action shotgun - you might not even have to fire it. You should look at home defense models with a pistol grip instead of a butt stock.
Personally I like a little 9mm or .380 in a very handy place(s).
Sure it can penetrate a wall. But you have to practice anyway first. Just seems more convenient to me. And you can keep one in different places hidden away.
Contrary to popular believe, its safer to use a 5.56 or 7.32x39 rifle indoors than it is to use a shotgun or a pistol. The rifle cartridges penetrate less drywall and a carbine is much easier to handle under stress. I would avoid mounting a light because you can probably navigate your own home in the dark much better than an intruder, that’s an important advantage.
In an apartment, if you really want firearm protection only, then a short barrel shotgun is your best defense weapon. Mossberg comes to mind and in the distance you're talking about, the caliber doesn't matter......
Also, should I purchase some kind of illumination device for the weapon? A mounted flash light?
Absolutely not! If you hear someone breaking into your apartment thru the doorway, it's likely the apartment is dark and you are in bed. Once the apartment door is open, the intruder will be fully visible via the outside lighting while you will be hidden in the dark. Any flashlight you may foolishly use will do nothing but reveal your presence..........
Having lived in an apartment outside of Detroit for almost 23 years and witnessed the steady decline in the area as well as the complex, I had to put up with a lot of weird stuff that went down there.
My additional advice to you would be to install a chain lock on the inside of the door that allows you to control who enters your apartment. I had an incident (well, one of many) that happened while I lived there. Late at night while in bed, I heard a knocking on my door.
When I answered it, it was the maintenance guy saying that he was responding to a power outage in my building and asked if he could come in and check out my electrical outlets. Being half asleep, I said ok, then he asked if I had an electric razor or something to check the outlets........Knowing what I know now, had I not been home, he was going to rob my place.
Subsequent to that incident, I found out that upstairs neighbors had someone come into their apartment in the middle of the night and stole her purse..........The maintenance guy who had their key.