Which is a better choice for investigating bumps in the night: a handgun or a long gun?
My argument:
While a shotgun (or possibly a rifle) is an excellent choice for defending a room, it is not the ideal weapon for investigating bumps in the night indoors (when you don't know if someone is in your home or not). I say this because a handgun can be fired from a retention position (see pic below) without sticking out in front of the shooter's body, while a long gun's barrel will stick out significantly farther. I feel that this would give a BG a better chance of grabbing the muzzle of the weapon and preventing it's effective use at indoor distances.
Scenario A:
You wake up from a deep sleep to a loud crash coming from another area of your house. You don't know if your dog/cat/wife/kid/mother-in-law knocked something over or if there is an intruder in your home. You grab your trusty shotgun and go to investigate. As you turn a corner you come face-to-face with an intruder who immediately grabs the barrel of your weapon (which you either already have in firing position or are bringing into firing position from an indoor ready position). You are now in a physical confrontation with an intruder and are unable to fire your weapon at him.
Scenario B:
You wake up from a deep sleep to a loud crash coming from another area of your house. You don't know if your dog/cat/wife/kid/mother-in-law knocked something over or if there is an intruder in your home. You grab your trusty pistol and go to investigate. As you turn a corner you come face-to-face with an intruder who immediately grabs at your weapon. You are now in a physical confrontation with an intruder but are able to keep enough distance between him and you with your weak hand that you can fire at him from a retention position, ending the threat.
Obviously these scenarios don't cover all variables and assume that you won't fire immediately without first taking at least a fraction of a second to identify your target. Still, I think you can see where I'm coming from.
Your thoughts?
My argument:
While a shotgun (or possibly a rifle) is an excellent choice for defending a room, it is not the ideal weapon for investigating bumps in the night indoors (when you don't know if someone is in your home or not). I say this because a handgun can be fired from a retention position (see pic below) without sticking out in front of the shooter's body, while a long gun's barrel will stick out significantly farther. I feel that this would give a BG a better chance of grabbing the muzzle of the weapon and preventing it's effective use at indoor distances.
Scenario A:
You wake up from a deep sleep to a loud crash coming from another area of your house. You don't know if your dog/cat/wife/kid/mother-in-law knocked something over or if there is an intruder in your home. You grab your trusty shotgun and go to investigate. As you turn a corner you come face-to-face with an intruder who immediately grabs the barrel of your weapon (which you either already have in firing position or are bringing into firing position from an indoor ready position). You are now in a physical confrontation with an intruder and are unable to fire your weapon at him.
Scenario B:
You wake up from a deep sleep to a loud crash coming from another area of your house. You don't know if your dog/cat/wife/kid/mother-in-law knocked something over or if there is an intruder in your home. You grab your trusty pistol and go to investigate. As you turn a corner you come face-to-face with an intruder who immediately grabs at your weapon. You are now in a physical confrontation with an intruder but are able to keep enough distance between him and you with your weak hand that you can fire at him from a retention position, ending the threat.
Obviously these scenarios don't cover all variables and assume that you won't fire immediately without first taking at least a fraction of a second to identify your target. Still, I think you can see where I'm coming from.
Your thoughts?