As someone who has experienced first hand a man with a shotgun entering my house and holding up my family, I have to say that having a gun in the house wouldn't have made one bit of difference.
If you're not carrying the weapon (raising problems of concealed weapons laws) you have to have enough warning to retreive it and ready it (if you don't keep it loaded). In my experience, the guy was in the house and we were under his gun before anyone knew or could react. Maybe if we had a dog it would have given us the warning we needed, but then he probably would have been scared off by the pooch, obviating the need for a gun.
IMHO guns are of limited use but the dog has been used by humans for thousands of years for security. Stick with the pooch.
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As someone who has experienced first hand a man with a shotgun entering my house and holding up my family, I have to say that having a gun in the house wouldn't have made one bit of difference. If you're not carrying the weapon (raising problems of concealed weapons laws) you have to have enough warning to retreive it and ready it (if you don't keep it loaded). In my experience, the guy was in the house and we were under his gun before anyone knew or could react. Maybe if we had a dog it would have given us the warning we needed, but then he probably would have been scared off by the pooch, obviating the need for a gun. IMHO guns are of limited use but the dog has been used by humans for thousands of years for security. Stick with the pooch.