Quote Originally Posted by Doc Glockster View Post
Not speaking as an SME by any means, but my house is a "split" floor plan. The master bedroom is on the opposite end of the house from the kids' bedrooms. Hence, I don't want to alert the perp to my presence lest he be close enough to the kids' rooms to potentially take hostages if he knows I'm looking for him. To my mind the element of surprise is worth a lot more than "scaring away" the perp (who may not be easily scared away if he was brave enough to invade a potentially occupied house in the first place). I'm not looking to pop somebody, but I figure anyone who would break into our house in the middle of the night prolly ain't afraid o' too much.

Hunkering down and calling 911 just isn't an option. The action will be over LONG before the sheriff could possibly get an officer out to this extremely rural area.
Your reply makes sense in the context of a rural dwelling with your particular layout. The problem is, I didn't really get that sense from your original post, which had a strong emphasis on stealth without any caveats; might be worth stipulating that in your original post. After all, the vast majority of Americans live in urban environments, not rural.