My vote for home use is for the shotgun hands down. You’re asleep and it’s dark and you’re probably not going to have time to turn on your red dot. It’s always a good idea to practice, but a newbie can generally hit a stationary target the first rattle out of the box with a shotgun. A pistol takes a butt-load of practice to become “good,” and a riffle as well but maybe not as much. The home defense scenario isn’t the same as a “sweeping a house scenario.” You’ll probably be asleep and they’ll be sweeping your house. You’re gonna be caught by surprise and it’ll be dark and you might not have time to get your sights turned or gun light on. What’s the saying “man can’t see, man can’t fight?” Ray Charles could hit something with a shotgun. Shotgun- lotta lead in a general vicinity in a relative hurry. Hard to beat it. You know, throwing a bunch of gravel vs throwing one rock. I’m bound to hit something with the gravel, but I’d better be on the money with my one stone.
If a mob was chasing me through the streets I’d opt for something with higher capacity. But even still, 6-8 rounds is a relatively large amount. Maybe not in a 3 gun competition, but in real life it is.
The 12 gauge wins the “one gun” scenario too. You can kill anything from a sparrow to a bear with a 12ga. You can’t say that about anything else really.