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Loads of armed Americans load-up their home defense shotgun with less-lethal buckshot. More than a few owners of the shotshell firing Taurus Judge and Smith & Wesson Governor revolvers do likewise—at least for the first chamber or two. Wrong answer. There’s only one reason to shoot someone: if they pose a credible, imminent threat of death or grievous bodily harm to you or another innocent life. If it’s do or die, you want to stop a threat as quickly, efficiently and completely as possible. Shooting a bad guy with less lethal rounds (or aiming lethal rounds at extremities) to “just wound” an attacker is a dangerously naive plan. Actually, it’s so stupid it’s not really a plan at all . . .
Gun enthusiasts have a standard slam against people carrying small rounds (e.g. .22 caliber) for self-defense: “It’ll just make them angry.” While I don’t suffer from bullet envy—much—it’s no joke, really. There’s nothing makes a homicidal attacker really homicidal like getting shot.
Even if you shoot a perp straight through the heart with a fairly large caliber honest-to-God bullet it can take as much as 30 seconds for them to “bleed out.” Your average bad guy can do a lot of damage, including murder, in that time. Why give them the chance?
Again, you’re not shooting to kill. You’re shooting to stop a deadly threat and, thus, make it possible to GTFO. Wherever possible. A beanbag round ain’t gonna get it done. Not reliably. In fact, one wonders why anyone would even own a beanbag round, never mind confuse it with “proper” shotgun ammo.
There is a potential exception: a TASER. Shoot a bad guy with a TASER and he’s going down. Unless you miss. Or the barbs don’t make it through a heavy jacket. Or you don’t have your slimline C2 in situ or immediate access to the bulkier but more badass X26C or M26c.
Of course, a TASER creates a temporary pause in the action. After the effect wears off, what then? The company readily admits that their ECD units are no substitute for a “proper” firearm.
By the same token, less-lethal rounds are no substitute for lethal rounds. If you use a gun for self-defense, don’t use it until you are within your legal right to do so. If you are, when you do, make it count. The life you save may be your own.