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Whatever's on hand is my preferred home defense load in my pistols, I'd take a mag full of JHPs over ball - but if I'm defending my life, I'll go with a big stick if it's all I've got. 12ga. 00 and 000 Buck are real serious penetrators - people plus a few walls with ease. If in-home defense is strictly the purpose of any 12ga in my possession, it'll be stoked with with #4 Buck, which will kill a man just as dead as 00 or 000. Any of my rifles will certainly cause an exit wound, and the round is definitely going through walls - count on it. It's already been said, but absolute care must be given to what is beyond your target, and not just directly either, as bullets can and will deflect in-target. Many have said that descretion is the greater part of valor, and that can't be stressed enough. If you have a family, develop a plan that enables all able bodies to rapidly construct a defensive and secure position where they are at. You live there, you know your home. Clearing a hot building is serious business, business during the course of which many good men (and women) have died through no fault of their own. Frankly, doing so should be an absolute last resort unless you happen to be playing poker in the basement with a trained fireteam during a home invasion, and your gun safe is between you and the door. Clearly, there are extremes during which any person would throw caution, descretion, and their own personal safety to the wind - such as the potential rape/death of family. I know I would - but plan A is not to go gun blazing into the living room for the good of all that is Samsung LCD. Odds of survival are far greater when all members of the household have a clear defensive plan. When you have home-field advantage, good defense has a whole heck of a lot better odds than a good offense. Be able and willing to combine the two, and you might end up on the front page, instead of the obituaries.

Where weapon lights are concerned, having seen enough people shot immediately after going bright, there's not a chance in any of Dante's firey rings that I'll ever use one. Having also personally choked out numerous prankster soldiers relying on "incapacitating blindness" after popping me in the face with their Surefires, I've got no faith in that marketing ploy. Use one if you wish, but be aware that a big bright area where darkness once existed makes one heck of an easy target. Putting that target directly in front of your body exponentially increases the probability that even potshots cause you potentially fatal wounds. You should never engage a target you are unsure of, but ID can be made without giving away your concealed position - and in a family environment, such should be part of your plan.