Ben,
You started this thread by saying that "I live in the suburbs and not really afraid of anything. My shotgun is locked up" and pretty much said that you didn't have any loaded firearms readily available for self-defense. Later on in the thread you say: "no one has backed me up yet" which I took to mean that you were still saying that your level of home defense (no loaded firearms) was sufficient.
Maybe I read it wrong, but it seemed that you were, at the least, heavily implying that having loaded firearms handy was approaching the same level as having machine gun nests and claymores while at the same time you were sticking to your level of preparation as perfectly adequate.
No two people are going to agree entirely on what is an adequate level of protection. I know a retired state trooper who makes it a point to always lock his doors, to always own a large, intimidating, trained dog, and to have a loaded gun secreted in every room. That's a bit more than I am willing to do, but I know that he's dealt much more often with the scum of the earth than I have. I don't follow his example in every respect, but I don't think that he's paranoid either.
My parents own self-defense firearms that they keep loaded, but they have them put away so securely that I doubt they could ever make use of them. As I said, I know some people who feel that even locking their doors is somehow an admission of vulnerability. I'm sure they think I'm nuts for locking my doors and keeping a loaded firearm readily available.
I truly hope that these folks never get into a real jam. That they don't ever need a loaded firearm. I hope that I don't get into a situation where I must resort to firearms. But, I have determined that I will make that option available to me so that if I need to, I can make use of it. Not because I think I'm likely to experience violent crime but because I couldn't live with myself if it DID happen and I had the means to stop it but couldn't because I hadn't made "reasonable" preparations.
That's really the key. Some people want reasons NOT to prepare. They can make a list a mile long if you discuss it with them. Low crime area, inconvenient, whatever...
I do my best to prepare to deal with the things I can't tolerate happening. My "reasonable rule" is basically this:
If I really don't want something to happen, and I can take precautions to prevent it then I will as long as those precautions don't require excessive cost or inconvenience.
Carrying a full-sized pistol or revolver all the time fits into the "excessive inconvenience" category for me. I make it a point to always carry a firearm and a spare mag, but I'm not going to carry something that requires me to alter my wardrobe or lifestyle to accomodate.
Fortifying my house comes under the heading of excessive cost. I have a monitored security system and I lock my doors and windows, but my house is not particularly difficult to break into for various reasons. I'm just not to the stage where I'm ready to put up bars or install fortified doors.
So, YES, I agree that one can go too far. It's just that everyone has a different standard of "reasonable."
One must be very careful when feeling around this topic because it's very easy for people to get the idea that you don't feel that they are reasonable because their "standard of reasonable" is different from yours. Especially if there are implications of paranoia or jokes about machine guns on the roof, etc.
But, it's interesting to have these discussions to see what other folks are doing and what they think is "reasonable." That's what these forums are all about, after all.