Don稚 understand where you are coming from.
A bolt action .22 with a scope is available used for less than $250 all day. An AR will cost $600-$1,200 plus optics.
Sounds like you and your wife do not agree over what the biggest threat is to your family and how to prepare for it. 鉄HTF usually refers to a prolonged period of time where government has lost the ability to provide order. That痴 not going to be a good time to be buying ammo. What folks consider sufficient ranges from two or three magazines full to a soldier痴 basic load of 200-400 rounds to thousands of rounds.
Sounds like you live in an urban area. The reason why urban and suburban homeowners buy shotguns in lieu of something like a 5.56 Rifle is that bullet will go through pretty much everything g in sight. #3 or #4 buckshot will not. A pump action shotgun like the Mossberg 500 is also simpler to teach your family how to use.
Someone mentioned 20ga has less recoil. Not necessarily so. A 20ga Gun is usually lighter so the impulse might be just as bad. There are much wider choices for 12Ga Home Defense ammo than 20Ga. This includes é��actical rounds which often have less recoil than hunting rounds. We have both and though we致e kept the 20Ga, I壇 buy another 12Ga in a é›»o over.ç´
[�/QUOTE]
According to Newton (and just about every physicist since ...) equal and opposite, etc.
FELT recoil is what hurts and yes, a heavier gun will come back a bit slower resulting in more of a push/shove than a punch.
It can matter if you are blowing away a couple of hundred (or 198) clay targets, but for a few dozen shots at pests ? probably not.
If recoil is an issue and you are NOT going to reload you can probably find a better choice of lighter loads in 20 Ga, e.g. lightest commonly available 12 Ga is probably 1 oz @ 1200 fps., but 7/8 oz and even 3/4 oz at similar velocities are on the shelf at many/most local *Marts.
...and Oh YEAH they are just as lethal, you just don't get quite as many pellets in the 30 inch circle on the patterning board.
12 Ga is still more versatile, very low initial cost and with 25 shells for under $5 most of the time - hard to beat.
There is also the issue of ricochet if/when shooting at ground vermin - whether running free or trapped.
Shotgun pellets can still be lethal if they bounce off a rock, but the range is so very much less than that of single bullets.