Not really, no. It's true that you aren't going to be sniping anyone with a shotgun, and it's also dependent on the shot you're using, but shotguns are used to hit ducks in flight, turkey, and deer (among others), which are all usually going to be a bit further away than your average hallway. Generally, birdshot is worthless for people outside of very close range; I once ran a call where someone got shot with birdshot from across the street and they might as well have been hit point blank with an airsoft gun. If that had been buckshot or a slug, they would have been completely fried. The tradeoff that you do with shot is that a finer shot will have a wider and denser cloud of projectiles, but each of those projectiles has less mass (and therefore momentum) for penetrating power. Buckshot is basically throwing a handful of (smaller) old school ball shot at whatever you're pointing at, and whatever you hit is going to have a bad time. I personally prefer the heavier 000 (triple-ought) buck to 00 (double-ought) buckshot, but either works great. A slug is going to have the best range and penetrating power; at close range, a slug will defeat any non-ceramic body armor, and people wearing ceramic are still going to be very unhappy. Of course, a slug also requires the best aim, because it's just one solid chunk of metal. in either case, I would say that shotguns with buckshot and slugs are entirely appropriate for personal defense in or out of the home, and urban combat.