With what would you recommend we use to defend our homes? A crossbow? Pistols? Shotguns? Let's go through those in turn.

A crossbow, muzzle loader, bolt action rifle, etc are horrible ideas for home defense for a bunch of reasons. Most importantly, reloading them for a second shot takes a prohibitive amount of time. Studies have shown that police have about a 50% hit probability, meaning follow-up shots are critical in a defense situation.

Pistols are great for maneuverability, but lack sufficient stopping power when compared to other types of firearms. They aren't a bad choice, but shotguns and rifles are inarguably more effective.

Shotguns present a different set of issues. Firstly, the spread of pellets mean that some of the load can miss the intended target. Not only will this make the rounds less effective, but can lead to collateral damage by penetrating walls. Secondly, the chance of short stroking a pump action shotgun is very real in a high adrenaline situation. This will jam the gun and leave you defenseless should the danger persist after the first round. The recoil of shotguns is also higher than a pistol or small caliber rifles such as those using the 5.56x45 mm round. This increases the time until you can accurately fire subsequent rounds.

AR type rifles have less recoil than many other long guns, are more accurate and effective than pistols, are more reliable than shotguns, and have a higher capacity than other platforms, which is invaluable should you have the same accuracy as police officers under stress.

In short, you are correct. You don't need an AR type platform for home defense, but it damned sure helps. So I'll ask you again, what would you suggest we use?