I once had a situatiom were I legit thought that someone was in my home after I went to bed.
My wife was working graveshift at her job and had gone to work for the night. It was a friday night and by coincidence only my 1 year old was at home with me. It was probably 11:00ish and I was in bed, I was just about to fall asleep and I hear a loud bang. It was clearly from inside my home. My rot/lad mix was immediately on her feet growling. I jumped out of bed and my safe is in my nightstand next to my bed. I hit the code (takes me like 3 seconds) and grabbed my 9mm. I keep my firearams (and other things) in there, my firearms are always loaded and ready to fire. Relax gun control nuts. It is a multi number code known to only me and my wife. I don't even let my kids touch that safe let alone punch in random numbers.
I called my rotlab to me and with 9mm in hand I opened my bedroom door. I cleared the hallway and then immediately went to the room directly across the hall to check on my 1 year old. She was sound asleep and I made sure no one was in the room. Then I cleared the bathroom and other bedroom at the end of the hall. The entire time the rotlab is glued to my hip constantly growling. My Dauchsund/****zu has joined the party and is also growling. So I head from the hallway to the rest of the house. There is a light switch there with 3 switches. So I bring up my 9mm. and snap on the light into the hallway, front room (front door) and living room (back door) and jump back into the hallway. I clear the front room as from my position I can see that entire room but am shielded from the living room. Nothing. Then I chnage angles and move forward until I can see into the living room. The backdoor is wide open! I am already nervous and on edge, as soon as I see that the door is open my heart starts going 900 miles an hour. At this point I fully believe I am going to come face to face with a burgler/rapist/thief/whatever. So I yell into the home. Something along the lines of "I am armed and with multiple dogs. Show yuourselves now or I WILL ****ing kill you if I find you!". Nothing. So I clear the rest of the house. Upstairs and down, at gun point. Not a damn thing. I checked every closet, room, and hiding spot. Then I proceed to the back door. I flip on the outside light and look into the backyward from the door way. Again at gun point ready to fire if needs be. Then I notice that it is very windy and that the weather stripping on my back door makes it difficult to close. So things like a strong wind will blow it open. I close the door and lock it.
The point of this is that I was armed and prepared to defend my 1 year old with my life. But I voiced a very loud warning and turned on the light in order to make sure of what I was seeing. I most certainly did NOT want to fire my weapon at anyone. And if someone had been found or presented themselves I would have held them at gun point till I could get the police there if given the chance.
It took me about 2 1/2 hours to get back to sleep. I slept in my daughters room next to her bed that night, so did the dogs.
I am very much for gun rights. However, that does NOT remove my personal responsibility or ability to make smart decisions.
GF has a good point about holding gun owners responsible. Where that line is though I am not sure. But it has to be somewhere.