[astounded]

Thanks Robert. Your wisdom is well-taken. I suppose the simpler pump action weapons will be fool-proof. I like the shorter length of the tactical weapons, for home use. I will continue to look for pump weapons with shorter barrels. A standard 870 I think is 28-30”?

[Robert357]

Many pump action shotguns can be purchased with an optional “slug barrel” to be used for deer hunting in certain parts of the country. Those optional barrels are usually quite a bit shorter.

You can also remove the “wood/plastic plug” that limits the tube magazine to two rounds so that the shotgun can be used to hunt federally protected migratory waterfowl.

My opinion (not everyone) is that if worst comes to worst, you have something that your attorney can rightly claim is basically a hunting firearm and that you were not some killer looking for a victim to step into “your trap.”

There is a place for purely tactical weapons, however, I don't believe that they do well in the court system in front of sympathetic juries. With criminals being able to sue their victims that shoot them in civil court for damages or their relatives for wrongful death, a self defense confrontation starts with a firearm and ends before one or two juries.