most of the time the reason people recommend things like shotguns or revolvers it's because they're simple and reliable and they're probably gonna get the job done if you do decide you need to shoot somebody. as you said, there's no gun that isn't going to go through the walls and kill the neighbor's kid, so there's not much point thinking about that when deciding what to pick.
stocking AP rounds for your "in case somebody breaks into my house in the middle of the night" gun is fucking batshit though
Either a shotgun is semiauto, in which case it's as unreliable as a rifle or worse, or it's breech loading and you get 2 shots which is not good for our adrenaline-filled, just-woke-up defender. I personally think revolvers are more finicky than ordinary semiauto pistols and I don't like the heavy trigger pulls (there's a reason why they're no longer issued as duty weapons), but there's room to differ there. More importantly, your ordinary skeet shooting shotgun or S&W 19 does not have a rail for a weapon light. Planning to use a gun in the dark without a flashlight is awful. Gotta know your target.
In general good advice starts with "use what you got", but I think the well-intentioned fudds telling people to use a shotgun or revolver are giving bad advice. If you're buying something for home defense you should buy a normal semi-auto rifle with a weapon light.
most of the time the reason people recommend things like shotguns or revolvers it's because they're simple and reliable and they're probably gonna get the job done if you do decide you need to shoot somebody. as you said, there's no gun that isn't going to go through the walls and kill the neighbor's kid, so there's not much point thinking about that when deciding what to pick.
stocking AP rounds for your "in case somebody breaks into my house in the middle of the night" gun is fucking batshit though
Either a shotgun is semiauto, in which case it's as unreliable as a rifle or worse, or it's breech loading and you get 2 shots which is not good for our adrenaline-filled, just-woke-up defender. I personally think revolvers are more finicky than ordinary semiauto pistols and I don't like the heavy trigger pulls (there's a reason why they're no longer issued as duty weapons), but there's room to differ there. More importantly, your ordinary skeet shooting shotgun or S&W 19 does not have a rail for a weapon light. Planning to use a gun in the dark without a flashlight is awful. Gotta know your target.
In general good advice starts with "use what you got", but I think the well-intentioned fudds telling people to use a shotgun or revolver are giving bad advice. If you're buying something for home defense you should buy a normal semi-auto rifle with a weapon light.