No sane person would buy a shovel to use primarily as a personal defense weapon, it's a shovel. However, as an expedient PD tool in a situation where a small shovel is handy and the pistol with 15+ rounds is not, an E-tool or CS SF shovel might be a better option than a knife. It's definitely better than bare hands.

That said, the thread is about digging and I've yet to find a 15 round pistol that's useful for digging a hole in the ground bigger than .45". YMMV