I too doubt that anyone will have time to get prepared with hearing protection.
Funny how people continually think how anyone won't have time to get hearing protection, and yet we have had all sorts of threads involving incidents where people spend 3-30+ minutes on the phone with 911 while somebody is outside, how people heard noises downstairs and got guns from their safes or other hidden locations, that people heard somebody rummaging around at the other end of the house and so they fetched a gun from somewhere close and went to investigate, and that folks have waited at the top of the stairs for bad guys to appear. In ALL those instances, people had more than enough time to get hearing protection. In a couple, people had time to sneak out of the house, go to the neighbor's house, borrow hearing protection, and then sneak back in to their own home and wait for the bad guy.
Yeah, that is a bit of silliness, but it illustrates how much time people have had in some of the cases we have discussed on this forum where people had enough time to put on hearing protection. If you have time to "investigate a bump in the night" then you have time to put on hearing protection and electronic muffs really are the way to go. If you have time to call 911, you have time for hearing protection. If you have time to get out of bed and go lock the bedroom door, you have time for hearing protection. If you are, as noted above, waiting for the bad guy to come to you, you have time to put on hearing protection.
LOTS of home invasions do not happen fast or lots of encounters with the invaders do not happen fast. In those cases, you often have time not only for hearing protection, but to get dressed, call 911, etc. Not every home defense situation starts off with the homeowner awakening to being in a fight for his/her life.
Here are all stories where hearing protection could have been used, more than enough time. Some call 911. Some call their moms, husbands, etc. Some knew the invasion was occurring and watched it occur while arming themselves and looking out the windows...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsvggjYRbL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp5gAY6aIjA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrL53-dE5Sc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-MvfDW8MOk (this woman's son is a deputy in the county or the next county).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYl6vrzza78
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS7LKwt1j18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt-u2VhL70c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0fcQ7gnjZw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mKHH22YNyc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQcoNr6ZIEc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1FLXLXCdgo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdA_5r_Gu-A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyq8Rlp_E9w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxbTII8B_Bk (This guy sounds pretty tough)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU6Z5ej5jcI
So this is just a sample of what is posted on Youtube, but illustrates how much time people often have during such events.