Personally, I'm not afraid of someone trying to rob my house or me for that matter.
Burglary is not the threat you should be worried about to have a firearm.
The threat you should be worried about, and -requires- a firearm, is someone with the intent to -hurt you-, not rob you.
Luckily I'm a very respectful, tolerant and kind person. The only enemies I've ever made, are the people who manipulate/lie/cheat/steal and even then only when it was done to me. I generally try to avoid those types of people completely, not even putting myself in a position to be an acquaintance of theirs.
If you are unfortunate enough to piss someone off who has violent tendencies, or be in the wrong place at the wrong time with a serial killer/mass murderer... that's when owning a gun for self defense is really your only means of survival. Texas became a shall issue (for conceal carry) due to the Luby's Massacre, where a man killed 24 people and injured 20 with a gun (again, criminals/psychos will still be able to get a gun even if they're illegal), and one of the patron's owned a gun and was keeping it lawfully in their car... where it served no use and could have saved lives had they had it on them.
A gun requires far less skill to use effectively compared to martial arts or bladed weapon based self defense, and attempting to flee may fail miserably.
I read several cop blogs online where an LEO posts anonymously so he can give his real opinions and more detailed stories. Love seeing their spin on things, especially since it makes it easier to see them as humans rather than tyrants when you read about them specifically targeting some rich arrogant guy in a Benz repeatedly parking in handicap parking spots and giving him tickets on multiple different days after looking for him. Or when they talk about how stupid some (even drug) laws are or the blatant stupidity/disrespectful hatred of some of the people they deal with on a daily basis.
When it comes to gun laws, there are three things cops have said that always sticks in my mind:
1. In reference to Open Carry and Concealed Carry, I am a supporter of open carry being legal, and was living in a state that concealed was legal with a permit but open carry was not allowed in public. I was talking to a security guard and former cop, who's whole opinion was that open carry should be -mandatory- and concealed always illegal. He believed as a law enforcement officer entering into a potentially life threatening situation, he should be able to at a glance know who all is (potentially) legally carrying a firearm when he's assessing potential threats. That way, anyone concealing their weapon is breaking the law by that alone, and most likely intending to do something illegal with it. He had been trained to spot concealed weapons (the way you walk/shift your weight, and subtle clues like one hand staying by your firearm carrying side raising suspicion of it).
2. When it comes to self-defense against a violent/aggressive attacker where fleeing is not possible... average response time for assault in progress in the area the cop blogging about this was 5 minutes, 10 minutes if you were calling from a cell phone. In that time, if you can't defend yourself, the attacker can do enough damage to send you to the hospital or kill you and escape. This cop believed that protecting citizens is part of the job, he emphasized that they aren't everyone's personal body guard and someone will hurt you if they intend to and you have no means to defend yourself.
3. Same person as in 1 (security guard was my smoke buddy at the office heh), he also said he'd prefer to be shot rather than stabbed, having been through both...