Weapons for survival can be a tricky thing to address. What kind of survival? The culture and focus of ETS is generally based on wilderness survival and surviving events that can strike in daily life. So this might mean a plane crash in the North woods, a capsized canoe with most gear lost, etc but it could also mean a large earthquake, a tornado or a hurricane. Generally this site doesn't really "do" EOTWAWKI discussions so weapons for apocalypse isn't a thing we address much. I suppose crimes like home invasions are a thing that, sadly, we potentially face in modern life although this might not be the ideal venue for those kinds of discussions.

In a wilderness survival situation a firearm normally isn't the most important thing to have but when you do need a gun you might need it badly! If I was doing a backpacking trip to a remote location in Montana, Colorado, etc I would absolutely want a firearm or two along.

While I'm not a rabid shotgun guy I think they're very versatile and effective firearms. A 12 ga pump with a 3.5" chamber can take any animal from pheasants and doves to geese and turkeys, and by changing loads it's suitable within 100 yards for moose, elk and the largest bears. True, in a wilderness setting the ammo is bulky and expensive. An over/under with a rifle barrel on to of a 12 ga barrel makes a useful woods gun.

I think that too much is made of length for home defense. Clint Smith of Thunder Ranch has a nice video illustrating the fact that the distance from the end of the barrel is about the same for a shotgun on the shoulder and sidearm fully extended out in an isosceles stance. A sidearm is a bit more maneuverable but training with a long gun can mitigate a lot of issues. Moreover there's no arguing with the fact that long guns pack a lot more punch. No gun is a 'death ray' but one round of 12 ga 00 Buckshot is likely to be more effective than one round of 115gr 9mm ammo. Long guns are also a lot easier to hit with, especially under stress.

If we're not concerned with defense against large predators (four legged or two legged) than a .22 rifle could be an excellent survival gun. You can easily carry a fairly large amount of ammo without a lot of weight or bulk. It's superb for small game and used skillfully can take large game as well.