Speaking from experience, you have to seriously consider the fact that when someone breaks into your home and you have a gun, it's not a question of whether or not you're going to shoot them, because you will shoot them. You have to be prepared to live with the aftermath for the rest of your life.
Should you shoot to kill, or shoot to maim? To clarify without going into too many personal details, I've shot two human beings in my life. One died, the other is crippled for life. The one that died had a gun to my face in a store robbery. You will NEVER forget that you took a human life. EVER. No matter how justified you are in your defense. You need to be prepared for it. To this day I still wake up from nightmares where my gun jammed and the last thing I see is him pulling the trigger.
After you shoot someone in self defense, you will yourself be treated like a criminal. You will be taken down town and fingerprinted. Your gun will be taken and never returned, no matter how legal it is and how much paperwork you have. You will be threatened with manslaughter charges every step of the way.
The second time I had to shoot someone was in a home invasion. Without a second of hesitation I shot an intruder dressed all in black in my darkened living room. That individual today is still walking the streets of my hometown. Or should I say, limping the streets of my hometown. His charges were dropped due to being UNARMED when I shot him. Though I've never had so much as a speeding ticket in my life the fact that something similar happened ten years earlier to me had the judges considering whether I used excessive force in defending my home (BTW NC is NOT an equal force state). Had he died, I'm sure I would have been up for charges.
You have to examine the laws and precedence in your town or county when it comes to defending your property. The NRA does NOT have your back. They will write a little blurb in Freedom First about how another "hero" saves the day, but they turn the other cheek when you call on them for assistance. I know not all police stations are as crooked as the ones here but please consider all possible ramifications of bringing a gun into your home. In this political climate ALL gun owners are criminally suspect.
Having said that, the only thing I would change about my experience is to have been a little more "careful" in how I presented my circumstances to the law. If someone's coming at you with a crowbar it's a lot easier to claim self defense than if you tell them how you shot them while they were jimmying open your locked china hutch.
I support our second amendment rights and I continue to keep guns in my home. For every one a judge orders destroyed, I buy four to make up for it.
