I'll take the dangerous range of a rifle over the mass of a slug anyday. 90% of our shots taken in the woods at deer have some sort of brush to go through and not in the air for optimal balistics before a house is endangered. Sure a slug can't go 1.5 miles down range, but it CAN go through those couple trees between you and that hunter you can't see 150 yrds away.

I've had two experiences while hunting in Allegheny county where I've had slugs going over my head.  One of those instances occured this year, where I had a slug pass no less than 2 ft over my shoulder.  The slug was fired by a member of our drive party at deer that got between the drivers and standers.  The guy that shot never saw me, since I was concealed with my back at a large oak tree .  I was not upset at the guy who shot, since I had enough awareness to position myself with a safe backstop at my back when driving deer in a situation like that.
This simply goes to show that errant shots do in fact occur while hunting, sometimes even by members of one's own hunting party.  I do not think that shooting a shotgun w/slugs vs a high power merits much of a debate (Barring residential and densely populated areas of course).  A bad shot is an bad shot period!!   Ultimately it is the responsibilty of the shooter to make good judgments before pulling the trigger. 
 Whether or not it is a 1 oz hunk of lead or a high velocity rifle projectile, either can be potentially dangerous given the proximity of hunters to one another while in the woods...    

Pa. has 900,000 in the woods on the first day.  Compare that to those other states and there is a big difference.