More shotgun advice from the NRA

[Jim Watson]

Shooting an assailant with birdshot at a distance where it becomes "non lethal" transgresses Machiavelli's Maxim: "Do not do an enemy a small injury."

A shotgun is simple? I don't think so. People worry about "forgetting the safety" on a SAO pistol. What about "forgetting to pump?" Operation of the pump gun takes practice, just like any other firearm; and it is not as much fun so it doesn't get done. Automatic shotgun? Biden Special? More expensive and with their own manual of arms to learn and only two tries from the BS.

I have a riot gun but my closest weapon is a DA/SA pistol.

[Stephanie B]

There is so much in that article that's cringeworthy.

This month, a 76-year-old New York state homeowner used a shotgun to defend himself and his wheelchair-bound wife from an armed home invader who threatened to kill them. ... As the robber apparently became preoccupied with escorting the man’s wheelchair-bound wife into the basement, the homeowner used the opportunity to grab his double-barreled shotgun, loaded with birdshot, from a shelf.

Using the only tool at hand is hardly an endorsement of the suitability of the tool for the task. Just because a guy used a battleaxe to fend off a home invader doesn't mean that we should all go out and buy battleaxes and make like Conan the Barbarian.

The discussion of the use of birdshot is inane.

What does this even mean?

Law-abiding shotgun owners do not need to use expensive ammunition to successfully defend themselves

Sure, you can use cheap-jack ammunition in everything. Lots of people have been put into the ground by .38 lead round-nosed bullets, let alone .22 rimfires. That doesn't mean they're even close to being the better choice.

And then there is this:

A shotgun is basically a point-and-pull mechanism—lacking the more complex mechanical details of pistols and carbine rifles.

Because a double-action revolver is so, so complicated to operate. Hell, so is an AK, a weapon that illiterate teenagers can be taught to shoot in, what, thirty minutes or less? (I'm sure you've seen the video of an African militiaman giving an AK to a chimpanzee.)

Or this:

The simple design and maneuverability of the shotgun lends itself to efficiency regardless of the age and physical ability of the person using it

Other than a double-barrel Biden Special, this point is just bullshit. A repeating shotgun isn't going to be any more compact than a carbine. You still have to have a legal-length barrel, the action and the stock. The target audience of this piece isn't going to have that repeated stored with a loaded chamber, so they have to cycle it. If it's a pump gun, they have to cycle it each time, which is going to take some physical ability.

Now, let's discuss what the writer blithely passed over: Recoil. Anyone care to opine on the recoil of a 12-gauge coach gun or one of those no-shoulder stock guns like a Mossberg Shockwave?

I did a couple of searches on the author: Zita Ballinger Fletcher, who apparently also uses Zita Steele as a pen name. She has a background in art, she's written a bunch of articles for conservative Catholic publications, she's written some books about the photography of Erwin Rommel. Some listings say she has expertise in criminology and cybercrime. That all may be accurate. But what I didn't find was anything that she has written about actually shooting any kind of firearm.

In short, she seems to be a reporter in the tradition of "I don't have to know anything about what I'm covering."

To declare that she's a Fudd insults the true Fudds.

[Stephanie B]

In my many decades of reading gun literature, I have never seen such bullshit. I think the NRA must be trying to present a softer, kinder image. Why else say not to use buckshot or not buy premium buckshot offerings? Why else say shoot somebody in the butt? Being blasé about AR's may be an effort to distance the NRA from AR firearms. Staff writers can't be so stupid that they believe any of this, especially the part about not needing to aim.

Maybe the makers of buckshot need to advertise more in the NRA rags.

And possibly, because the writer does a lot of writing about her religion, she's a devotee of "spray and pray".

[Borderland]

I have a riot gun but my closest weapon is a DA/SA pistol.

Just another decision the average shotgun owner has to make, birdshot or buckshot. Now most here would know the answer to that but I'm not so sure everyone that has a shotgun for SD knows that. They should but with articles like this they may not. Using birdshot for effective SD has been a misconception for a long time. I remember reading some blather about that in years past in different gun magazines. That was before the advent of the tactical shotgun and all of the training and marketing that came with it.

I have a riot shotgun in my safe also. My home defense is my 9mm carry. But then I don't live in west Chicago.

[Yung]

The basics of pistol shooting book has been recently updated. It's pretty decent, minus one



point I have issue with.

[Caballoflaco]

Just because a guy used a battleaxe to fend off a home invader doesn't mean that we should all go out and buy battleaxes and make like Conan the Barbarian.

Crom frowns upon you from the great mountain, dooms he will send.

[ralph]

There is so much in that article that's cringeworthy. Using the only tool at hand is hardly an endorsement of the suitability of the tool for the task. Just because a guy used a battleaxe to fend off a home invader doesn't mean that we should all go out and buy battleaxes and make like Conan the Barbarian.

The discussion of the use of birdshot is inane.

What does this even mean?Sure, you can use cheap-jack ammunition in everything. Lots of people have been put into the ground by .38 lead round-nosed bullets, let alone .22 rimfires. That doesn't mean they're even close to being the better choice.

And then there is this: Because a double-action revolver is so, so complicated to operate. Hell, so is an AK, a weapon that illiterate teenagers can be taught to shoot in, what, thirty minutes or less? (I'm sure you've seen the video of an African militiaman giving an AK to a chimpanzee.)

Or this: Other than a double-barrel Biden Special, this point is just bullshit. A repeating shotgun isn't going to be any more compact than a carbine. You still have to have a legal-length barrel, the action and the stock. The target audience of this piece isn't going to have that repeated stored with a loaded chamber, so they have to cycle it. If it's a pump gun, they have to cycle it each time, which is going to take some physical ability.

Now, let's discuss what the writer blithely passed over: Recoil. Anyone care to opine on the recoil of a 12-gauge coach gun or one of those no-shoulder stock guns like a Mossberg Shockwave?

I did a couple of searches on the author: Zita Ballinger Fletcher, who apparently also uses Zita Steele as a pen name. She has a background in art, she's written a bunch of articles for conservative Catholic publications, she's written some books about the photography of Erwin Rommel. Some listings say she has expertise in criminology and cybercrime. That all may be accurate. But what I didn't find was anything that she has written about actually shooting any kind of firearm.

In short, she seems to be a reporter in the tradition of "I don't have to know anything about what I'm covering."

To declare that she's a Fudd insults the true Fudds.

After reading your assessment of the article as well as the little background info on the author, I can only guess that she was hired because she works cheap...She certainly doesn’t know anything about the topic she chose to write about. But, I guess if you work cheap enough, that an be overlooked.

[mtnbkr]

They took the article down.

Chris

[Bergeron]

They took the article down.

Chris

HA!

Now maybe some good can come of this, either a follow up article written by someone in the know, or perhaps ship the original author off to a shotgun school, where she can come back and write about the education and new conclusions.

[Clusterfrack]

How is it that the NRA is so far behind the curve on defensive use of firearms? It really is pathetic.

Quick story about birdshot: a few years ago, a buddy’s older dad inherited a farm from the grandma, and it was in bad shape from repeated break-ins. Buddy and dad were camping out there to repair the place when two armed tweakers kicked the front door in. Dad was alone when it happened and he grabbed his 12 Ga pump and shot one Tweaker in the neck at point blank range with #7 birdshot. Tweaker survived and fortunately didn’t try to fight because he was much more physically capable than the old guy. Girl Tweaker ran and was later found hiding in a ditch. The dad’s shotgun was loaded with a random assortment of shells including bird and buck. My buddy is confident that buckshot would have ended the fight decisively.

NRA: WTF?