I like shotguns for home defense because im comfortable with shotguns. It has been years ago, however, I read an article that claimed no one has ever taken more than one shot to incapacitate with a 12 gauge shotgun since records of police shootings have been kept. Handguns are great tools but far inferior to most long guns. Obviously this is not always the case but most of the time. A good friend of mine says a pistol is great for defense until you have a person with a rifle attacking you.