The use of Less than Lethal Ammo

Hi FerFAL,

What is your opinion concerning the use of 12 gauge rubber bullets or buckshot for home defense ? A cop told me it's very painful at close range. Wouldn't it be appropriate to kick burglars out of you home without the risk to go to jail ? It could be fired from a coach gun, which is easier to move arround with than a regular shotgun.

I'm sorry I went ballistic about peak oil on your blog but people don't seem to understand the basic principles of thermodynamics. Our only hope is nuclear fusion I guess.

....

I figured that the answer to my question about rubber bullets was in your book but I'm still some pages away from the shotgun topic.

Did you ever get robbed by teenagers or children, and would you have used LTL rounds on them ?

Bye,
Etienne

For self defense, specially if someone broke into your home as you said, use lead ammo, dont use LTL! Having said that I think that LTL plastic buckshot or bean bags can be more useful than people think.
It gives you a very serious yet non lethal (if used properly) alternative.
I think a perfect example could be seen recently in Chile.
Also during the Argentine riots of 2001, the gun store I frequent run out of LTL pretty fast, mostly store owners rushing to get ready in case looters went after their store as they saw happening to others on TV.
While the use of LTL in the hands of civilians is mostly a niche situation, it can occur and it could have been put to good use both in Argentina back then and in Chile.

Now, this niche situation is peculiar: You’d be dealing with desperate people, you’d have a defendable position not easily overrun and you should have the time to deploy it.
What I do is keep my Mossberg 12 ga. shotgun loaded with a first round of Nº1 birdshot, the largest bird shot pellet available.
At inside the house range it blows a big ugly hole into a body. Yes, I know what they say about bird shot being for birds, the problem with that little saying is the way it conflicts with the reality of 12 ga of any kind being used at across the room range.
The following 4 rounds are 00 buckshot and with a total capacity of 6, it leaves what is commonly reffered as a “hole”, one empty space to load a round from the stock shell carrier. That’s where I keep the LTL round.
Lets say you have looters walking your way, you are behind an improvised barricade you made with your neighbors or you are watching from a top floor window, or some other position that gives you some security and tactical advantage in the encounter.
“Share your food with us. “
“No I cant. “
“Do it or we’ll take it by force. “
“I would recommend that.”
The looters come forward and you drop a couple with a LTL round.
This could end up two ways:
a) They leave b) They don’t and you have to pump the shotgun again, this time drop them for good.
Again, this situation is pretty peculiar, more typical of disasters when there’s a period of lawlessness, but at least in my opinion, it is worth considering in your armed self defense plans.

The advantages are many: You don’t take a life, which you should care even if it’s a looter or someone that would likely kill you to get what he/she wants.
You don’t have a corpse to deal with.
You don’t risk murder charges when order is restored. You DO risk a lawsuit none the less, poor mister looter will say he was picking up daisys when you just shot him for fun. Again, better than a murder trial and any judge and jury with half a brain will see that you decided to load a lethal weapon with a LTL ammo, that alone talks about how you are a caring human being that will do absolutely everything he can before taking the gravest decision.
Finally, if you DO end up using lethal ammo, the LTL wounds or spend shell will be again proof that you tried to do everything you could before taking another man’s life.
This is at least, my opinion regarding LTL ammo and what I do myself. I’d highly recommend plastic buckshot for these situations, used at more than 10 yards away, shooting to the floor and looking for the pattern to bounce and spread, hitting as many looters as possible. That’s the operation procedure described in my box of Less Than Lethal Fabricaciones Militares buckshot.

PS: Guys, I’m doing my best to answer all emails, either personally or through the blog, I do get a lot of it and its sometimes hard to do so but it’s a blog after all and the interaction with readers ( at least to me) is important. Please be patient and give me some time, send your question again if I somehow missed it. It may take a couple of weeks but I do answer.

FerFAL