Is the military shotgun an american thing?
 

I don't see any foreighn countries issuing shotguns to military forces. I look through history and it seems just america uses it. The germans even tried o have shottys banned. We issue the m1014, 870, 590 and 1300. Close quarters, breaching, lots of uses. Why does it seem nobody else really warmed up to the shotgun.?

The Eye-talians issue Bennelis. Don't what exact model but i think it is the M4 Super 90. The Israeli Military issues Remington 870s. So does the United Kingdom. China also uses the 870 copy. Of course, my knowledge comes from Wikipedia. So most likely most of you will tell me to shove my Liberaly Biased Wikipiss up my ass and use Conservapedia.

We issue the Remington 870P, there's maybe 6 of them in my company weapons lockup. Don't often see them in the field, but there are a few guys that carry them. Most nations have Remington 870s in very small numbers for specialists uses, mainly for SF and MPs / security forces.

That said, until say the 70s the Americans were the only ones that used them on any large scale, except the British in Malaysia who used the Browning A5 in the jungle. The Japanese in WW2 had a few SXSs with bayonet mounts, and I know the Luftwaffe issued drillings to their pilots as survival guns if you want to count those.

SXS? What is that?

Shooter's abbreviation. Side by side.

I know for a fact the British SAS uses Remington 870s

You have to write it "SxS" so the lower case "x" stands for "by" ;).

The Russians use the Saiga shotgun.

I don't think they use the Saiga. I never saw a picture or a video or any indication that Any branch of the Russian Armed Forces ever used shotguns.

If they do its highly specialized, ive never seen any other military issuing them on a wide scale as a general issue weapon.