Just an FYI to everyone, if you have dead bolts make sure that the screws that hold the stike plate are LONG. You want those screws to get as far into the frame as possible. Wilco, where I work, and like many other departments offer a free security audit of your house. They provide excellent tips and a lot of insurance companies offer a discount on your homeowners insurance. For those of you that are serviced by the Williamson County Sheriff's Office should call 512-943-1300 and ask to speak to a deputy in the DARE department. The last time I checked they were still doing this. Lights are the best prevention, as well as knowing your neighbors and their habbits. As many of you know, that doesn't always prevent crime but it does a lot more than you may think in stopping it from happening in the 1st place. Digital camera systems have come a very long way. They have a much sharper image and are very affordable. Fry's and ebay offer inexpensive systems. State law does allow deadly force to protect yourself and/ or your property. What you need to consider is if what they are doing is worth the end result. Something that you must live with for the rest of your life. If it is to protect yourself or someone else, I believe it is a no brainer. Property can always be replaced (and I know a lot of folks including other cops that would argue this with me) Also consider some people simply do not have the ability to follow through even though they swear they could. I know this is an extreme example but since protecting yourself is really what this boils down to I thought I would take this from a-z. Chris, I read about all of this on the status updates and I understand where you are coming from in that a lot of people believe this too. However, when it comes down to it and you are put into the position of using deadly force because you believe that by not acting in such a way, it would end in substantial injury or death to you or someone you are protecting, do you really want to hit a leg just so they can still shoot at you. We receive a substantial amount of firearms training every year as well as tatical training. We are never trained to shoot to hurt. You want to completely stop the agression. Remember, they put themselves in this situation. Plus, it only takes a second for someone to advance towards you from across the room. Try seeing how fast you can run across the room. Most of that time, you will spend it processing the information of what is hapening. Hopefully you will have time to actually react properly. Take this from someone who has had a gun pointed at his head. Anyway, sorry to have taken so much time on explaining this but I really do care about about our ARC family.