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Someone once said that the pistol is to get to your shotgun and the shotgun is to get to your rifle. If someone is "trying" to get in my house, then I will have time to select the best weapon. However, if someone is already inside or the door is already coming off the hinges, chances are I will simply grab the first thing I can get my hands on. Any gun is better than no gun. For tactical purposes, if I know someone is already inside and is in the other room, I may select my Glock 19 9mm. Because it is small, I can easily manuver around corners with it whereas a long gun may bang against the wall or knock something over giving away my position. Because it is semi-automatic, I can fire rapidly enough to make up for missed or poorly placed shots. The magazine size (15 rounds) will also give me sufficient time before worrying about reloading if necessary. If the person is not yet inside or if he is and I know his exact position, I may opt for the Mossberg 12 gauge pump-action shotgun loaded with 2.75" 00 buck. One trigger pull will fill the bad guy with 9 33 caliber holes so I don't have to worry about much of a fire fight. The problem is solved as soon as it started.
Now I do have a gun reserved for serious intrusions which would be the Wasr-10 AK-47 rifle 7.62 mm. If more than one person and especially a whole gang is trying to get inside, I need a strong defensive rifle. Because it is semi-automatic and holds a large amount of ammunition in the magazine, quick firing without having to reload for awhile make it optimal. Mine does not have full-auto capability but if it did, I'm not optimistic that it would be tactical because it would burn up the ammunition too fast. With a crowd of intruders, you need to be very tactical because they all probably have guns and are using tactics as well. The advantage you have is that it is your home and therefore you know the territory and they don't. Chances are with enough rounds fired at as many bad guys as possible, the ones who are still alive will decide to leave and if they don't, chances are that the police would be there very fast.
I do think it is important to make some clarifications and corrections here. There is the media definition of assault rifle and the military definition of assault rifle. The real definition of an assault rifle is a defensive/offensive combat rifle that fires a medium caliber round and is select-fire meaning that the operator can toggle between semi-auto or auto. Generally, what the media calls "assault rifles" such as my own AK-47 does not meet the true definition of an assault rifle because it is not select-fire. These rifles would best be described as defensive rifles or combat rifles as they are still designed for such tactical usage even though they don't have automatic fire capabilities. As to someone's use here of the term "high powered" that doesn't apply to assault rifles either. A high powered weapon is generally a weapon with a higher caliber such as .50. These weapons may also have longer range accuracy as well. High-powered rifles are generally used for hunting and sporting and are probably not the best tools for home defense.