Well, although I realize there are advantages to using a pistol for home defense, I personally think that a shotgun or a semi-auto carbine is a much better choice. I keep a 12 gauge Winchester 1200with an 18" barrel loaded with #4 buckshot in the closet.

I did a test with my friend once at the gun range to prove my point. He had a Ruger 9mm, I had my 12 gauge. He took a target at 25 feet and fired off his whole magazine. It took about 4 or 5 seconds, and at the end there were 10 scatteredholes in the target. I then took a different target and shot once from my shotgun. The blastalone at an indoor range was somewhat terrifying - the target was shredded with about 25 holes throughout.

I'll grantyou that a pistolis better for going around corners, and inmost cases can be drawn faster, but I just love the power atyour fingertips that 5 rounds of #4 buck provide.