http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msawedoff.html in reference to this article I would like to point out that while shortening the length of a shotgun does make it easier to conceal there is another more interesting reason. A shotgun with a short barrel is much more lethal at short ranges. When a shotgun is fired the shot, small pellets for bird hunting, spreads out over distance. This can be a disadvantage when shooting birds because not enough pellets entering the bird will not be lethal and the wounded bird will escape. A long barrel will keep the shot pattern tight at long distances. If the prey is human at close range a tight pattern will be only slightly better than a large caliber pistol round. Shorten the barrel and at a distance of ten feet or so the pattern becomes much larger, say about a foot. Add to that a larger shot pellet, say what is referred to as “double ought” about 8 pellets per shell and you have a weapon that can blow a very large and very lethal hole in a man with one shot not even carefully aimed. This style of gun is banned because it has no other practical use than as a short range weapon of murder.
Howdy, looppr, and welcome to the SDMB.
Since this is the forum for questions about columns Cecil has written, and the article you’ve referenced is written by Bricker–one of our SDSAB contributors–I’ll close this thread and direct everyone to the same thread you opened in our Comments on Staff Reports forum.