From Kurt Schlichter:
There’s a term for when there’s at least one gun for every single citizen. That term is “a good start.”
But we own nowhere near enough guns. In fact, the bare minimum number of firearms for an individual is three: a solid handgun, a solid shotgun, and a modern combat rifle.
Hear, hear.
Noticeably missing from his (and my) list is something that shoots rimfire cartridges because, as any fule kno, a .22 (rifle or pistol) is a household appliance and not a firearm. Ditto rimfire cartridges, which are not “bullets” but a household commodity like flour, sugar or salt.
Anyway, by Kurt’s estimation, there should be over a billion more serious guns extant in civilian hands — and that doesn’t mean ten million heavily-armed assholes (like me) who need a crane to move their guns safe(s) from one house to another.
It means, in essence, a rifle behind every blade of grass or (if I may be so bold) a Nation of Riflemen.
Preach the gospel, O my Readers. Encourage those poor unenlightened souls into the Way Of The Gun.
And just in case anyone has doubts about what we’re really talking about here, this is as good an explanation as any.
And my shameful admission: I still do not own a solid shotgun; in fact, I don’t own a shotgun at all. I need to sell or trade one of my (ahem) few rifles or handguns… trouble is, I’m down to the bare essentials in that regard. What to do, what to do?
Just get an 870 and a thousand rounds and be done with it already. Like you said about the .22, it’s a staple, a household tool, a hobby, a piece of American engineering history.
Mossberg 500 series with the tang safety. I prefer to keep my trigger finger devoted to the trigger without having to touch a safety at all. The tang safety on the Mossberg is ambidextrous and can be manipulated with your thumb.
Boston’s Gun Bible has some good recommendations for a firearm battery. Pistol, rifle, pump shotgun and a scoped distance rifle that can be used to hunt as well.
I like the idea of a 22lr rifle and handgun being staples in the house like a coffee pot, toaster etc.
Let me be the first to dissent here. We are moving at high speed, head first, into civil war 2.0. Those of us on our side certainly don’t want it, but those on the other side keep on pushing. So if it comes to that, I’d rather the enemy be as poorly armed as possible. That means liberals, people from blue states, people from big cities (typically blue, even in red states), and more than ever the feral population – those who’ve been in and out of prison, proven that their violent, and tend towards burning down cities during riot season. Restrict those populations as much as possible. Let them suit up in motorcross armor, bicycle helmets, and plastic chinesium riot shields with improvised hand-to-hand weapons that we’ve seen them use so far. They don’t need guns – let them be the designated bullet catchers. I’d like to see every blue stronghold ban guns as much as possible. Fuck them.
And again, I don’t want to see civil war 2.0. I’d rather retire soon, enjoy my life, and see my grandkids grow up and enjoy their life. I just want me and mine to be left alone. That’s all I ask, and apparently that’s just too much to ask for.
Don, you make a valid point, but I think you’re assuming that every Leftie is going to go out and buy a gun.
Ain’t gonna happen.
Even if they do, they won’t use them because almost from birth they’ve been told that guns are evil.
The real growth in ownership will come from people who don’t have anything against guns, but have just never owned one before. I bet we all know at least two people like that.
Kim,
I am an irredeemable gun fiddler, and play with gun accessories like girls play with Barbie dolls, but for defensive shotgun you REALLY don’t need to spend much (by today’s standards). Yes, I have highly modified Mossberg 500 and 930 (semi-auto) defense shotguns with numerous modifications, but in reality, simpler is better, I believe, when it comes to shotguns for, um, social uses.
IMO, the best value (not cheapest) in HD shotguns today is the Winchester SXP Defender, about $330-ish. Fully chrome lined chamber and barrel, smoothest action on a pump gun out of the box I have EVER felt, twin action bars, very robust.
IMO, a perfectly viable shotgun for HD (you’re not likely to get into 3-gun competition at your age) is the venerable Maverick 88 pump at about $275. Get some emery paper, oil it up and lightly ease the sharp edges of the action bars, put some Flitz on the bars (the finest polishing compound I know of) and rack it about 500 times while watching your favorite war movie, clean, and Bob’s your uncle, you have an utterly reliable HD scattergun you’ll love shooting.
The ONLY modification I believe is MANDATORY on a HD shotty is the XS Big Dot tritium shotgun front bead sight. I am not a fan of ghost ring sights, and you are an experienced shotgunned, having been a bird hunter for years, so you will mount a shotgun easily and correctly all the time. The BIG front dot is great for our older eyes, and the tritium, well, don’t scrimp. You simply pack some JB Weld in the hole in the XS sight and clamp it over your existing bead sight. About $70. Add a cheap-ass nylon sling for $10-15 and you’re done.
If you rectify this situation of not having a HD shotty, let me know, and to celebrate, I’ll send you 50 rounds of the spendy Federal LEO 00-Buck rounds. Practice with any clays fodder you find on sale.
JC
If that’s Flite Control, hellova offer and worthwhile taking up.
I found through local contacts that there’s actually at least two “LEO loads” Federal makes, in identical boxes. One is standard buckshot, the other is Flite Control. The difference in pattern is a fist size hole versus a beach ball at 25 yards.
They’re both good ammo, but there’s voodoo in the Flite Control.
P.S.
Forget all the broo-ha-ha over Remington vs Mossberg, position of the safety, steel vs aluminum receivers, etc. etc. etc. This is like comparing brands of hammers given the intended purpose, all that crap is mental masturbation. Just get one, while I’d favor the Winchester, I’d be perfectly content with the Maverick for HD, crowd control purposes. Just get one and practice with it.
Of course, if you can find a good deal on a used Remmy or Mossy, or other shotty (have friends keep an eye out for you at gun shows), the idiots (like me) who are constantly fiddling with their toys often sell very serviceable shotguns to “upgrade” to some other toy.
And watch Clint Smith on defensive shotguns. He is full of wisdom.
https://youtu.be/i12p_i4-qpM?si=6PWVqQ4X1_4QDzSn
I’m going to disagree with Mr. Schlichter.
You need *at least* one pistol. Everyone does. IMO if you have managed to get to your high school graduation ceremony without being charged with a felony or violent misdemeanor you should get a .22 or maybe even a .380 with your diploma.
Rifles are for forcing your will on other people. Pistols are for telling people trying to forcing their will on you to f*k off. So yeah, you SHOULD have a modern military style rifle.
And for most of America–at least in terms of population, that’s it. A spare pistol and a spare rifle, in the same caliber, is probably a good thing.
But for most of America there is no need for a shotgun. In terms of home defense the shotgun is probably a little better than a pistol or a .223, but it’s not order of magnitude better in that role.
Where the shotgun really shines is when you and your problem are both moving rapidly, and you can use the “spread” to put a few pellets in him to slow him down so you can get all the pellets in him, especially in an urban environment where pellets lose energy faster than bullets, so they don’t go through schools.
But that’s not civilian defense stuff, and it’s going to be rare in the coming conflict.
The pump shotgun is tool that demands a LOT of practice to run well in a stressful situation. Especially if one is planning on going in harms way (rather than for home defense).
So I’m not saying don’t get a shotgun. If you live in a rural area where “home defense” means you might be going out to another building, or where you might have to defend yourself against wildlife…a 20 or 12 guage is way better than a pistol against bear or the kind of “big” cats we have in this country. And if you want a shotgun for home defense, go for it. This is still (barely) America, the land of “want not need”.
But for most people, when it comes to combat or self-defense, a “modern sporting rifle” in 5.56 overlaps sufficiently with the shotgun that it’s not *necessary*, and given the difference in manual of arms, and how little time most people are willing to practice, it would be better to suggest they just get one, and learn to use it.
I also disagree with “needing” a .22 around as a utility tool. Most Americans live in urban or suburban areas. We *can’t* use a .22 for pest control, legally or ethically. Yeah, they used to be great for plinking, but even that today is hard to find space to do.
A 12 gauge pump is hard to go wrong. Remington, Mossberg, Winchester, Benelli, etc. My personal preference is the Mossberg, as I’m left handed, but I can use and run them all about equally.
Where you really want to focus with a shotty is the ammunition. Leave birdshot for the birds, but focus on slugs and buck for social work.
There are reduced recoil slugs for those who are sensitive or have shoulder damage etc. Go for the standard Foster slugs though, in either normal or reduced recoil variety: they’re designed to be used in smoothbores, leaving the shotty more versatile than a rifled barrel. Unless you’re hunting at .30-30 rifle ranges though, you won’t need the magnum 3″ or worse.
In buckshot, I can NOT sing the praises of the Federal Flite Control wad sufficiently. That stuff is magic. While normal buckshot can start spreading even at across-the-room-distance, I have fired shotguns that, when coupled with FC, turn that buckshot into a precision round at 25 yards, punching a fist sized hole in the targets head, and still keeping all pellets within a torso target at 50. With a cylinder bore / no choke. All the benefits of essentially a pound of frangible 12 gauge lead slug, with none of the flyer pellets to add more lawyers to your legal defense fund. The downside is that Flite Control is freaking expensive. Snag it when you can, as much as you can afford, and squirrel it. It’s worth it.
No worries about recoil at all. Watch this. My son was shooting 00-Buck out of a 12g pump at age 10 when he may have been all of 110 lbs. This technique works.
https://youtu.be/Gq74aiXn1b4?si=hl3p-iOCyS8ug-Mp