Considering the number of toys trusquirt manages to have lying around the ground floor that either roll or make music if you even so much as walk past them, I would lay even money that our buglars would announce themselves by eihter a rousing rendition of “mary had a little lamb” or a rolling sound followed by a big thump & cursing, rather than the alarm system we have in our house.
Serously, though, a good security plan involves layers of protection, of which a firearm should only be part of the last, and innermost, layer.
Layer one should be the landscaping arround your house, designed to eliminate hiding places and expose the doors & windows.
Layer two should be the perimeter of your house, designed to be sufficiently hard to break into so as to require effort noise, and time.
Layer three should offer means of detection and notification of intrusion. This can include a security system, a dog, etc.
Layer four is the active planning and rehearsing of pre-defined protocols for you family members addressing a few contingencies: “bump” in the night, home invasion, and doorbel rung in the night by someone “asking for emergency help” You need to plan your actions for each scenario, assign tasks: who gets the kids to the safe room, who calls 911, who goes to investigate (if at all), etc, etc.
Layer five is a “safe retreat” room (one for night time, one for day) which can be securely locked, has a land phone and a cell phone, ideally a control panel for the security system, and, if you chose, a firearm stored in a child safe manner. (biometric safe, trigger lock, etc. etc.)
The overall objective of the outer layers is to slow an intruder, detect them quickly, and give you time to activate the inner layers, implementing your protocols.
By the way, you should also have protocols in place for fire, any likely natural disasters in your area, illness or injurry, and any other significant threat you can anticipate.
A firearm as a means of home defence is also of questionable value if the owner does not make the effort to acquire and maintain the sufficient level of skills required to use it quickly, safely, and accurately, in the dark, with adrenaline coursing through their systems.
As a fomer skydiver, I am intimately familiar with the reason why first jumpers don’t activate their own parachute. Adrenaline seriously messes up your perception. Anyone considering a firearm for home defense should also be familiar with applicable laws in their jurisdiction, and consider a training course on the matter.
As an aside, in some states in the US, as part of the training required to carry a concealed handgun, students are requiered to write down 5 (yes, five) reasons why a stranger might be in their home, or try to break into their homes, with no intent to harm (eg. alzheimer’s patient wandering, drunk guy who think’s it’s his own house, persons fleeing an attacker, persons seeking shelter from dangerous weather, etc etc.)
Bottom line, without training, preparation, and planning, I agree that a firearm for home defense is not a good idea. As part of an overall plan, with the effort to get a keep proficiency, it can save your family’s life.
