It's strange how we do things differently because of the law. Over here Nothing needs to be lock up or unloaded unless you have kids. Your house is your castle after all.

It is also not uncommon to have firearms hidden in different places around the house ready to go. Alarm, dogs they are very good first line of defense but if they managed to get into your house chances are those are not enough. There are a lot more home invasion around here due to the holiday. Lost of jobs do not help either. And gun sells are up almost 10%.

In states where they have "castle doctrine" home owners do not even have to "find out" if their life is in danger or not before they stop the threat. I believe your life is already in danger if someone breaks into your place...