I was recently accused by a gunner here on DU of

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81. depends

A shotgun, as evidenced by its name, shoots "Shot". Not, unless you specifically buy a shotgun slug shell, a "bullet". You can load in scary sounding blanks that have the added fright factor of shooting sparks out the barrel. Or load it with rock salt, just to inflict pain. Or bird shot, which does damage to the skin but not much else. Then you can go up to more lethal loads. You can even, as an uncle of mine who lived out in the country did - load it with progressively worse shells - a blank, bird shot, then something lethal. In his words, "if they ain't got the message after you have fired twice, then they deserve what comes next.

A 16 gauge pump is great for home defense, just load it with 00 and point it in the general direction. The noise itself is enough to drive invaders out of your house.