Why millions of Americans — including me — own the AR-15

[tortoise1956]

99. I agree with you on almost everything else

But I don't see an AR-15 as a good home defense weapon. It's too long for easy handling in middle of the night situations when you're coming out of a deep sleep. I see a similar problem with actually readying it for use, for almost all owners. There's a huge familiarity curve to overcome before I would consider owners to be proficient with the average AR-15.

I currently have a good old pump shotgun with #2 shot. These loads will lose a vast majority of energy after passing through a single wall, but they will tear a hole right through 1/2 inch plywood with no problem. Besides, the sound of a pump being racked is pretty much universal - a BG on the other side of a bedroom door that hears that is probably going to reconsider his life choices before opening that door.

If I didn't have grand-kids that visited us on a regular basis, I would put either my Ruger GP100 in .357, or SP101 in .327, in the drawer of the night stand. Nothing beats reliability like a wheel gun. No jams, no failures to eject or feed, and if you have a misfire, just pull the trigger again. But, they're too easy for a child, even a 5- or 6-year old, to fire. Instead, my Mossberg 590 pump shotgun sits by the bed, 5 in the magazine and none in the chamber, with the safety on. Since either my wife or I is in the bedroom at all times when the kids are visiting, that should be enough to prevent ADs. As they get older and stronger (and thus more able to chamber a shot-shell), that will probably change to a revolver in a biometric safe.

And if anyone wonders why I have a gun by my bed, We had neighbors on one side who had a young relative that was a banger wannabe, and their house got shot up. On the other side, the former renters had SWAT pay a visit shortly before they were forcibly evicted. The new renters look more civilized, but looks ain't everything. Finally, there have been a rash of car break-ins in our area the past month or so. Based on some of the people I knew in my youth, if they're druggies and they run out of easy pickings, home invasions are a logical next step. They're already occurring in some areas of Las Vegas on a fairly regular basis...