I feel the same way - I would rather have a cheap, used pump than any double gun for defense. But, in every case where I've investigated something going bump in the night indoors, I have picked up my carry gun and flashlight to do the job. The only time I recall choosing the shotgun was when going outside to see what all the noise around the chicken coop was about. That said, I think in Troy's case where his family is upstairs and he is defending a large open stairwell, I think a shotgun would be an okay choice.

My 30-plus year old home defense pump gun is a Smith & Wesson NATO Game Bird 12-gauge that S&W imported from somewhere back in the 70's. I bought it new on sale for about $89. I took it to the station and quizzed a cop who stopped by on how to properly measure barrel length and then a fireman who did plumbing off duty cut the barrel off. In Dallas, officers carried a wooden dowel with a colored ring around it to measure shotgun barrel length. They'd close the action and drop the dowel down the barrel until it contacted the bolt face. If any of the colored ring showed outside of the barrel the gun was illegal. We figured out the measurement, added an inch just in case, and shortened the barrel with a pipe cutter.

That is the only shotgun I own that I've never patterned because I'll never shoot it at anything more than 30 feet away, and I doubt that's far enough for shot to begin to spread out into a pattern.