Then you would be incorrect with your assumption about "fear" being the driving force behind my owning a gun.
I own a gun because I choose to and have a cons utionally protected right to do so.
There isnt one member of my family over the age of 14 that doesnt know how to handle a firearm, especially something as simple as a handgun.
I keep a gun in my nightstand because crazy happens all the time. For instance, and I am sure a couple Michigan folks can confirm this story, but within the past 2-3 years (my memory sucks) there was a home invasion in Chesterfield township (FAR north of Detroit) where a young married couple (whom my wife graduated with both of them) were bound, beaten and robbed.
Since the dip felons didnt wear masks or the like, they knew the two suspects could identify them, so they had to kill them. So they beat them with clubs while they were tied to chairs, but it didnt finish the husband. So they injected him with bleach...numerous times. It still didnt kill him. So they continued to beat him...still didnt die. Smothering, choking, etc...wouldnt die. He finally died probably from the ulative effect of all the abuse and poisoning.
This happened 10 miles from my house and I knew (vicariously) the victims.
The murderers were apprehended a few short days later. Turns out, they were a young couple who were riding around with a dead hillbilly in the trunk/bed of their car. That poor soul made the mistake of offering help to the young couple up north (where police services arent around the corner). He let them stay in his trailer on his property for free for a couple days, then they tortured and killed him, but didnt know what to do with the body. They burned it, etc.
So while fleeing the scene up north, they needed fast money. They picked a random house, found a young woman there, invaded and accosted her, made her call her husband home for "an emergency". She (unforgivably) complied with their demands and called him home. He rushed home and was assaulted as soon as he entered the front door. They beat and tortured them all night and ended up killing both of them via the methods described above.
That isnt happening to me or my family, ever. I keep a 9mm in my nightstand for when I am sleeping (wife is a notoriously light sleeper and knows to wake me up should she become alarmed), I keep a .380 near my person everywhere in the house, especially in my basement (worst place to be in your house is the basement...no exits). I have patrolled twice in my five years living there, one was a false alarm, the other, IMO, was not. A su ious car kept circling the neighborhood slowing down in front of our house every time (we were watching them through the window in the den). This literally went on for about a half hour, over 15x they passed by, slowed down.
My wife was trippin', very nervous. She called the police, they said theyd send someone right over. 40 minutes later, no cops. Car is still there and at this point, I know there are 3 people in the car. Too dark to get a license plate and only a dumbass, pacifist with no brain goes out to the driveway with a baseball bat like thats a show of force.
So I holstered my 9mm on my belt, tucked my shirt in and stood at the end of my driveway near a very thick, mature tree and waited for them to come back around. They did. They slowed down near me and scoped me out, all I did, no macho , is turn my body to show the piece. They, literally, sped off and never returned.
I stood awake in my den for a good two hours with a loaded 12 gauge seeing if they'd come back. The first car to come around...the police. I explained the exact situation, description of the car, number of people in it, how our house had been robbed recently and every detail. His exact words "You did the right thing."
My father had a person try and break into his house (in Detroit) from below the floor. When the perp got through the floor somehow, he peeked his head through to see a side-by-side 12 gauge pointed at his nose.
My uncle was on a 25ft extension ladder tying a new service in for a commercial building just outside Detroit. A precarious position, to be sure, especially working with 10,000 volts. A group of hoodlums strolled up and started to shake the ladder, demanding his wallet. He said "Sure". Reached in his back pocket for his .38, pointed it at them, ed the hammer and they scattered.
My aunt was broke down on the side of the road on I-75, I dont know if I was ever told what was wrong with the car, a pedestrian pulled over and offered assistance. She accepted, but kept her purse on her. The guy got under the hood and asked her to take the driver's seat to try the engine. He leaned under the hood and she got into the seat. Not 30 secs go by and the guy came around the driver's door and tried the door, never said a word. He started hitting the driver's window to break it, to get in. She reached in her purse, pulled her 9mm, and pointed. He ran back to his car and sped away. She collected herself and looked under the hood. He pulled all the spark plug wires.
The "other outcome" in those situations is not going to happen in my presence or in my life. I have been training with firearms almost longer than I can remember. Only untrained, deliquent morons or untrained children shoot themselves or other people with firearms. My father bought me my first gun (20 gauge, pump action Mossberg) when I was 11. In the first day, I could disasemble it, clean it, and put it back together with no help. Thats the rule in my family before you can keep your first gun.
If you have had the good fortune to never be in a situation where being armed is desirable, good for you, hope that works out for you and your family the rest of your life.
But I have been in two situations where being armed was incredibly desirable...the story I told above and another situation where I was unarmed staring at person pointing a gun at me (I was a teenager, at a party and someone came to the house with a weapon out of anger, I just so happened to be the poor bas nearest the backyard gate he entered in). No thanks.
You can be content trusting your local police force to protect you, you seem to have had no reason to be otherwise. I, otoh, will take active measures to protect myself above and beyond my ability to get to a phone (which, imo, is no "protection" at all). Someone breaks into my house while my wife or I are home, they may have walked in, but theyll be carried out, alive (should they comply) or dead (should they refuse to comply).
Same place my father kept it when I was too young to know anything about firearms, in a safe. After that, he always had a lock on his door, I'll do the same.
But my child will be raised with firearms just the same as I was. I never pulled out my "daddy's gun" to show off to my friends. I didnt have to. I shot every single kind of gun before the age of 12, the novelty and "WOW factor" of guns had worn off long before that. They were and are not toys to me. I stopped playing with fake guns before the age of 10 (why play with the fake when youre shooting the real whenever you ask?).
To answer your question, I havent decided. I am thinking of mounting my 9 in a holster behind my headboard to get it out of the drawer (too obvious) and also have a lock on my bedroom door. I keep the safe in the basement, so thats no issue.
Mind you, I have children in my house all the time, so I am constantly locking up my firearms. But they dont stay the night (never will) and they get unlocked every time they leave.
Assault rifles, sniper rifles, handguns, kevlar vests and every single type of ammunition made. As much as they want, so long as they legally purchase and qualify under Federal guidelines (no convicts, mentally disabled, have to be of age, etc).
/story
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& "predatory, greedy invader"
