Best Guns for Home Defense
Handguns, shotguns, and ARs set up to defend your home — with lights, the right ammo, and community guidance.
What to Look For
There's no single best home-defense gun — handguns, shotguns, and ARs each have strengths. A handgun is easy to keep at hand and retain; a shotgun delivers overwhelming close-range power; an AR-15 is the easiest of the three to shoot accurately under stress. The right answer depends on your home, your training, and who else lives there.
Two things matter regardless of platform: a weapon-mounted light (you must identify a target before pressing the trigger) and ammunition chosen with over-penetration in mind. Add training and secure-but-accessible storage. The picks and questions below cover each platform, ammo, and setup for defending a home.
