I’m fortunate to never have had a personal moment where I’ve needed a firearm – though I’ve had a handful of situations that fortunately deescalated before I felt the need to draw my firearm. That being said, I live in many many of other peoples moments where they are glad to have a firearm or wishing they had one.
I’m a 9-1-1 and police dispatcher.
It is not uncommon for one of two scenarios to play out for me when a homeowner calls in what they suspect is someone breaking into their house (sometimes it is a false alarm going off, or a drunk banging on the door, or legitimate home invasions – but it always is real to these people when they are waiting for police.)
1.They have a gun and they usually listen to my advice to patiently maintain a defensive stance in bedroom or with kids in kids bedroom. Wait for police to arrive.
2.They do not have a gun and they spend the same time either hiding in complete fear, arming themselves with utterly ridiculous items (seriously I’ve had grown men tell me they are armed with a wiffle bat.), or spend the whole time worrying about if the police will get there in time.In my professional opinion the majority of people in group 1 while being afraid enough to call police generally do ok knowing they have a viable means for defense. The people in group 2 generally wish at that moment they were a member of group 1, and owned a firearm.
*there is a very minority group of people who have chosen to arm themselves with other weaponry with varying levels of practicality and are more similar to group 1. Samurai swords, throwing knives, crossbows, etc… I respect but question their choice of defensive weapons over a firearm but they generally seem confident.
James Darkhollow’s answer to the question “What are some specific examples where being a gun owner got you out of a bad situation?” at Quora.com