[markem]

Everyone. I repeat, everyone, in your home must be trained to handle any firearms in the home. The exception is with minors who cannot be trusted due to age or lack of maturity. Mind you, some adults cannot be trusted due to lack of maturity as well, you make the call.

In my opinion, you should take a firearms safety class followed by at least a firearms self defense class. Self defense shooting is a whole lot different from range shooting. Only then will you know what weapon you feel comfortable with, if any.

Personally, I like an aluminum baseball bat as the first line of defense followed by a short barrel shotgun followed by a handgun with shot shells alternating with hollow points. But that's just me.

Note that any weapon that is within easy reach of you any place you are in the house is within easy reach of a foe. Many times, the person breaking in knows the victim and all their hiding places.

At this point in my life, the best plan I can offer for self defense is a good escape route. I would encourage you to insure everything in your house because they are only things. Save the people with a great plan to get them out of harms way. Also, I would encourage an alarm with a panic button that has a remote control fob that can be worn on the person.

One last thing, in the event that your house is every broken in to, anyone escaping or getting to a window should yell "fire" as loud as they can. Most neighbors will respond to "fire" by calling 911 when they would ignore "help" or similar. At least that's what I'm told by some of my LEO friends.