LTL (less than lethal) 12 ga. Ammunition and Warning Shots during Civil Unrest.

When shooting for self defense you shoot to stop, not shooting to wound like you occasional hear people asking,  shooting the arm, or leg.

One person even asked me once if you couldn’t just shoot the gun out of the hands of the bad guy, given that I knew how to shoot. I don’t even remember the person who asked but I remember the question and thinking, “ is there no limit to how stupid a person can be?”

Having said that there are shades of gray in between, that’s where OC Spray comes in and in some situations, LTL ammo.

You have a defendable position, you have a group of people closing in with clear intentions, you don’t see guns around but they are still closing in, maybe a round of LTL convinces them that you are serious and spares you the corpse in your lawn and the thousands worth of lawyers or even time in jail if you’re unlucky enough. So yes, backed up with lead buckshot, one or maybe two rounds of LTL may spare you a lot of grief in the right situation. 

Its really just another tool in the tool box so to speak. You keep the shotgun loaded (lead ammo) and handy with a “hole” in the magazine (full capacity minus one round). That way you can load a specialty round if needed. LTL or Slugs for more range and penetration.

Now, if you’re shooting LTL, it has to be a situation that makes it right to use a firearm against someone in the first place, and you do so as a last resort before shooting the real stuff, so it either stops the conflict with a bit of luck, or makes you look good in front of other if you end up using lethal force: You clearly tried everything within your means before using lethal force. 

During the riots, I saw on TV how a cop defended a supermarket, all alone, just with his shotgun. He stood in the front gate, between the supermarket and large group of looters. He didn’t have a defendable position or even basic cover so what he was doing was pretty risky.  When the looters came close, he shot a round into the air. The looters stopped moving forward but kept looking. He shouted “Get the fuck out of here! NOW!”  and shot one or two rounds into the pavement in front of the group, sending the plastic pellet spreading wide before hitting the looters. That got them hurrying away as requested. The cop didn’t look scared, he looked extremely pissed as if he was about to shoot them all down. You can see why the looters moved on, probably looking for an easier target or a less determined defender.

About the OC grenades, this same gunshop that was selling the LTL ammo I mentioned in the interview had some of these grenades available, sold them all out pretty fast too.

For the price, don’t even thing about it, get a box of LTL ammo, it may spare you a lot of problems one day. Just remember to train with the shotgun so as to have it ready that way, and use that hole in the mag as you’re supposed to. Just one round of LTL at a time, one round and you load one again if you want but get used to shooting one at a time so as to always have the rest of the magazine full with lead buckshot in case they rush in and you have to defend yourself. Its tricky business because if you get confused you may end up just pumping a round again and shooting lead when you don’t want to, so again. 1) only use when you would be in your right to use lethal force 2) Train and practice the drill until it becomes automatic to load and shoot the LTL round, or other specialty round you have a need for. 

Warning shots are a reality as well during civil unrest and can even become common practice in some places. In the Argentine country, ranchers and farmers routinely shoot warning shots to send trespassers and poachers away. It gets the job done. Yet another reason to use 22LR as a "work" gun: Cheap warning shots. Imagine shooting two or three warning shots almost on daily basis, the ammo cost goes up quickly.

After the quake in Chile, a man with a shotgun ended up shooting 2000 rounds, nearly all of them warning shots.

These are all different tools to use, different alternatives you may have given the situation you are in. There's no black or white answer, these situations are complicated and its best to use your head so as to resolve them with the least amount of violence, escalating according to the situation, in a way that you avoid further problems down the road.

FerFAL