I have a friend that is a competition shooter and avid hunter, yet he is staunchly against keeping a readily available gun for self defense. He keeps the gun and ammo locked up separately, where it would be useless as self defense, it would take too much time to unlock the gun, unlock the ammo, load the gun, etc.
Interestingly, my father was in the military for a good amount of time, became an officer. Has handled and shot many types of guns. Yet he is completely against guns in the home.
Guns aren't always used for killing people, it just happens that way sometimes, and often times could have been avoided. Having a gun may make you feel safer, but please don't lie to yourself and think it actually does make you safer. (Unless you live in a war zone, then I guess being armed makes more sense.) Statistically speaking you and your family will be at a higher risk of accidental shooting from your own guns than at the hand of a criminal. And the safety procedures required to really keep a gun safe from kids and others from accidents really does make a gun as home defense pretty useless.
I guess you could just keep a loaded gun on you at all times, but it only takes that one time it's out of your sight from your children (even if you teach them proper handling) and worse yet, their untrained friends. Personally, I'd rather not have guns in my home because the fear of my kid or her friends in the future accidentally shooting themselves worries me more than the random criminal that may or may not attack my family at home.
I guess if I really felt that unsafe and paranoid, I would rather have a panic room in my home than a gun. Or rather than simply a gun, robot sentries, or attack hamsters. Because anyone that knows my dog knows how useless she would be for home defense, unless crapping on them counts.
Oh, and I guess I'll address the OP's post before this thread does get locked. I don't lose sleep at night over the gun threads, but I don't like them either. I don't post in them either. But it has been mentioned many times in this forum that this forum needs to stay kid and family friendly. I don't think a running gun lust thread where pictures of gun collections being oogled over like headphone amps is appropriate for kids.
-Ed