My own views about the utility of a gun in a home defense situation were changed when I was in martial arts for a while. Sifu and I went back and forth on who wins - martial artist, vs guy with gun.

Thing to remember here is the 20' rule. A human being can close 20' in the time it takes you to draw and aim your weapon. A trained human being ? 25', perhaps? Is there anyplace in your home where you HAVE 25'?

But this did not seem true to me, and I didn't see myself just standing there. I figured that a trained unarmed combatant WITH a gun will beat an unarmed martial artist every time - and I'd have a better than even chance against someone who had a gun and wasn't trained in unarmed combat.

So we made some training guns out of hockey tape and cardboard. And it went just like it did on Mythbusters when they tested the myth, except even more decisively. We tried it both ways, to the extent possible with non-firing weapons. He was much better than I, and even so I was able to close with him and strike decisively more often than I should have been able to. That's not something I could have done if he had not been focusing on the gun. I found that attempting to use a gun while in combat was a huge distraction. I could see training around it - but that would take a lot of training. Frankly, I'd rather have a nice bit of hickory.

So, my suggestion would be to invest in a steel door and frame and polycarbonate window glass. Now people can't just causally break in and you gain the luxury of time.

Now that you have that luxury, you can think about what weapons make sense to you.