Shotguns are great for home defense, but pistols still have their place as a self-defense weapon + target shooting. Shotguns are a little bulky for taking camping, for instance.
I have a Glock 23, (.40 calliber), it is the second one I've owned and I never even seriously considered another gun. If you only own one piece, make it a .40 in a high quality gun.
The bottom line is that *god forbid* you ever need to shoot someone, any caliber within reason will do the job of stopping them. A .22 is better than a frying pan. A .40 that you can accurately fire 3 or 4 times in 1.5 seconds will drop any human vermin right quick.
And David, I agree w/ your post and respect your opinion in that if I had children my gun ownership would be re-evaluted. Hell, a Latin GF would probably make me lock it up.
