Crackheads breaking into a house to steal stuff aren't the same as a home invasion.
That said, you're right, home invasion is a low risk--but if it happens to you, or one of any other myriad violent possibilities, it's high-stakes.
I agree that if you're planning for this sort of thing, however, you should work on some more likely scenarios (such as fire/medical emergency/natural disaster) before you plan for the one-in-a-hundred thousand shot (for most of us) that you're targeted in your home by a violent criminal. You should also work on deterrents and "hard targeting" as your primary way to keep ****heads away from your home and family. (Again, I'm a BIG fan of dogs.)
And I also agree that if you're not trained to use a gun as a practical tool for lethal force, not a way to punch holes in paper, it's a liability to your safety. As a security professional, I also endorse getting away from danger instead of trying to defend abstract notions of justice or "protecting your domain." But I also have to acknowledge that a home/family situation makes it very unlikely that you'll be able to evacuate your family from your home in the event of a break-in or invasion.
People who plan for the worst are not 'living in fear' as their detractors would have it. On the contrary, the prepared individual can be as relaxed as the person who chooses willing oblivion to danger in the name of "freedom from fear." Most people go through life without considering or preparing, and never face the consequences--and if they do, they don't look at their lack of preparation as a failure; they just see themselves as victims. But some of us don't have a victim mentality. You may make me a victim, but it'll be damned hard.
I spent the scariest night of my life (in comparison to receiving rocket and mortar fire) in our suburban hotel the other week when I had a 3 AM confrontation with some big, violent guys, and wisely got my ass out of harm's way and retreated to my room, where I had to face, for the first time, violence in the presence of my family. The dudes running up and down the hall screaming for my "nigger ass" (funny, cuz I'm a Jew of the palest pale) would have eaten a lot of lead if they'd only been sober enough to remember which door I'd escaped to. They were preparing to break down doors. Not cool, especially as I suspected at least one of them was armed, and if they started pounding my door down, they'd have met the threshold for reasonable use of deadly force.
lthumbsdown:
