And so it goes
Will this debate never end?
My weapon of choice for 2 legged varmints at anything less then 300 yds is a shortbarreled AR platform. I have used them EXTENSIVELY inside building, vehicles and in outdoor environments.
The 556 with the wrong ammo is horribly over penetrative for home defense in the cities of the USA.
With the RIGHT ammo it becomes one of the LEAST penetrative rounds avail while giving absolutely devastating effect on target.
The lightweight, almost explosive, varmint bullets are great choices for HD. Hornady TAP in the lighter weights would be my go to in that caliber. You dont need, or really want, the heavier more barrier blind ammo that may be used by LE/Mil users.
You're not going to be shooting through auto glass or doors and the like in a HD shooting. Somehing that fragment violently upon impact with anything significant is the ticket
Lastly, there is NO COMPARISON in wounding/stopping ability between Handguns and an AR with proper ammo. The wounds and the effect on a human target are night and day.
I was involved in a shooting in 1993 where i used a handgun (doesnt matter what caliber or ammo). The bullet completely perforated the badguys thoracic cavity at a downward angle, went thru a lung and his Pancreas before exiting and stopping in a flower bed behind him.
He ran 3 blockes, jumped 2 fences, ran thru an Apartment parking garage, ripped open a storage cabinet to ditch his gun ( the bloody hand print on the outside made it pretty easy to find), then hid under some brush onnthe side of the freeway. When found he had almost bleed out, but had he chosen to stay and fight, he had plenty of gas left to go for quite a while. Handguns SUCK at stopping people
Contrast that with a shooting I was in with a 10.5" M4, 1 hit center mass and the guy flopped to the ground like his strings had been cut. That was overseas working as a contract employee so I cant provide many details but the difference in effect was DRAMATIC. I dont have any wound data, as we didnt stick around. The round might have severed the spine and that resulted in the instant flop, I dont know, but ive seen more then a couple guys shot with 556 rounds, and they WORK