Peripheral issue: home security is set up in layers. A simple explanation can be found in "Jim Grover's" (Kelly McCann) book Street Smarts, Firearms, and Personal Security. In essence, you need to make sure that it takes some effort for someone to get to (or through) your door without their presence being known. Do you have exterior lights? A fence? Dark corners where someone can hide (to attack or to take their time breaking in)? Do you have solid doors/windows with good locks? A dog? Etc.
On-point issue: Firearms don't do you a goddamn bit of good if you can't get to them, ASAP. They are not imbued with talismanic powers, such that their mere presence in the house will provide a benefit. And they don't do any good when you aren't home; your layered security does help, though.
Having known or known of a fair number of people who have been victims of home invasions and/or break-ins (many of which are domestic violence/stalking-related), the common threads that I see in the break-ins that occurred when people were home are these:
1. Inadequately secured doors/windows.
2. No early warning system - alarms, dogs, etc.
3. Doors that don't resist kick-in.
4. Opening the door when someone knocks, even though you weren't expecting anyone.
These are all preventable, or at least subject to easy risk mitigation. So do it.
The idea that an unloaded pistol or shotgun, tucked away in a closet, will be able to be readied quickly and under stress is unrealistic. The idea that it can be loaded as you struggle with someone who is trying to kick down your bedroom door, or while you try to round up your kids...right. I think it is prudent to secure those firearms you are not using, but you should leave your "working guns" ready to work.
I keep two deadly weapons ready for service - A pistol, which I wear during waking hours and store bedside at night (still holstered in my trousers, on the floor beside the bed), and a shotgun (12ga riot with 00) in the safe room closet. I live in an area where houses are close by, and have shot enough building materials with these weapons to feel comfortable that overpenetration is not an undue risk, should a shot go amiss. If I lived in a more rural area, I would gladly substitute a compact rifle for the shotgun (AR, AK, Mini14, shorter M1A or FAL).
For those concerned about overpenetration - I also know a fellow who had a home invasion earlier this year where he was able promptly hit the first armed invader, center of mass, with (as I recall) seven rounds of .357Sig, before he had made but a few steps through the front door. Invader was DRT and his compatriots ran off. However, a number of these hot, penetration-prone rounds failed to make it through the invader's puffy jacket and clothing, and fell onto the ground as the deceased was loaded up on a stretcher and carried off. Would a Glaser SafetySlug have stopped this guy?
It's amazing to me that someone would result to a loaded gun for home protection. What are you going to do, kill someone? (and go to jail unless they shoot at you first?) I think it could be a useful tool too but we don't lock our doors either other than occasionally at night and the last thing I ever think about is my gun, and keeping it loaded...
My $.02
I would hardly consider it a foregone conclusion that one would go to jail for shooting a home invader, even without a castle law protections in place.
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