After reading some of the posts above - I'm pretty annoyed.
If you are naive enough to think it wont happen to you and you wont ever be in a situation that requires some form of protection well - then you really have no excuse when your wife / kids wonder why you couldn't defend them - or why they couldn't do anything.
Statistically every one of us will be burgled - with over 1 million each year - so if your wife is alone with your kids (if you work shifts) - a weapon is a must.
To say that someone that has a weapon is paranoid - or a lunatic - well
Here's 3 things that have happened to me over the last 25 years (i'm 40)
1.) When I was 21 - I went on holiday with my GF and my dad went on a Football coaching course away from home. My parents live in a chalet bungalow in a very nice part of town. My mum was awoken during the night by a guy climbing on their roof - trying to get in the skylight windows (while my Dad and I) were away. She phoned the cops who arrived about 20 minutes after the guy had ran off.
2.) I now live in a very quiet / nice part of my City - At age 30 - I was awoken by a guy trying to prise open our French Doors - I scared him off - only to find the next day - that 6 houses close by were broken into.
3.) I came home from a night shift to find none of the lights working when I opened the front door - my wife and sons were home alone that night. When I got up that afternoon - my wife said the electrics were all out in the house. I sat down in our sunroom and saw my security lights in the back garden swingin in the wind. I went out and found that all the cables to them had been cut - and that some of the Double glazed windows had been cracked by someone trying to pull out the surrounds.
Now - as I say - me and my parents live in probably the nicest areas in our city. But what you would suggest we do if confronted with some scrote walking around our house.