I think the only handicap in shooting a short (or long) barreled gun, if you are not shooting them regularly, is the time and effort needed to learn to shoot one. Short barrels are no more difficult to shoot than long barrels, if you shoot it enough to be used to it. Shoot just short barrels for some time and then jump to a heavy 30-32" barreled gun and that will feel ponderous.
If you can lift up your and and point at a bird in flight, you can learn to shoot short, light barreled guns. Nothing will be shorter or lighter than your hand pointing your index finger and that's not hard.
The only problem with the finger pointing analogy: no one has ever broken a clay nor killed a bird by pointing a finger. That makes it hard to establish whether a short finger is as deadly as a long one.
