Some good points by all involved in the "Great Gun Debate". The shotgun argument is a good one with todays ammo technology. The sabot round is impressive and is highly accurate to 200+ yards. The sabot is basically a smaller caliber projectile inside a sleave that is the same diameter as the bore. When the projectile leaves the barrel, the sleeve detaches immediately and the projectile maintains the spin provided by the sleeve. I've never been a big fan of the shotgun because of my interest in precision marksmanship, but it is the hands down champion at home defense. I have 3 custom built AR-15's (.223), two with open sights, one with a scope/bipod that are designed to shoot accurately out to 1,000 yards and I would not choose them for home defense because of all the walls they would go through before or after they took out the intruder. Nobody wants to shoot a member of their own family while trying to protect them. As for the .223 for deer and other medium game, they are capable of the job, but not a very good choice; not to mention they are illegal to hunt deer with in all but a handful of states because they lack the required energy at the target. They are also too damaging to small game to be a decent choice. I hate to dog the .223 because I have more invested in them than all my other guns combined, but facts are facts. My AR-15's only purposes in life are to win High Power Rifle matches, or rid the world of varmits... and they do that as well or better than any gun made. Guns are like tools; it would be nice to have one do it all, but that's not reality. I don't even own a shotgun, but I'd have to side with the shotgun guys when talking about them being an all-around weapon... I hope my other guns don't read this!
George