I'll probably be repeating a few things others have said, but here I go. First of All, Thank you for your post. Everyone enjoys a good story, especially one with a happy ending and good lessons to be learned. Glad to hear your doing ok. But dont be too worried, bad things happen to the best of us. Dont let this fill your life with paranoia, just do the best you can to be safe and prepared. Like a Boy Scout
Obviously you should grab a phone, but get the gun first. A phone will just get help on the way, but the gun will save you in the event that something happens RIGHT NOW! I'm not totally against yelling out "who's there" Because, there might be a chance it's someone you know, or even a neighbor who is in urgent need of help, but they cant yell for you because then the "bad guy" will hear them, hence the reason they come to the back door, ya never know Anything can happen, Thats also a great reason to NOT SHOOT until you know who your shooting at, and why! But yelling out for identification is more of a judgment call which you can only make at the time. I would think most bad guys would wait till they were in your house before shooting you, but once again, you never know.
I think the best thing anyone can do is to have motion detector lights at every outside door of their house. To scare away intruders, and also to help you identify who's outside. Many intruders wont be scared by them, but then at least you have a chance of identifying them.
Bolts that bolt UP on to the door frame, and Down into the floor are a great way to keep your self locked up in your house. Even if someone brakes the glass on your door and unlocks the door nob, they will have a very hard time knowing about and reaching the top bolt and especially the bottom bolt. And it also makes it much harder to kick in the door. But if you have an all glass back door like I do, your pretty much screwed anyway, but atleast you can hear them comming!
Having an alert dog is always a good thing! Doesnt matter what it is, as long as it can hear and bark.
Thats about all I have to say as far as your situation goes. Congratulations on how you handled it, even though it wasnt "perfect" everything worked out well.
My family has always had guns in the house, but never loaded and always locked up (I live with my Parents, they have always "Kept" my and my brothers .22 rifles locked away) But I'm 24 now, and getting things together nicely, and I am enjoying all my time at home with my parents.
I have been buying quite a few firearms over the last few years. (At my parents disappointment) (half of which they dont even know about
, yeah yeah yeah, I know) And recently my Grandpa gave me his old Ruger Mark II. I have open carried with it just a few times, mostly to grow more comfortable exercising my rights, no matter how unpopular it may seam. And as of just 2 nights ago I've decided to start keeping it in the main open compartment on my headboard (I have a waterbed that I put a mattress in) right behind my Upright TV watching pillow, it's got a loaded 10 round magazine of .22's but I keep the chamber empty. Also keep a quick flip pocket knife within arms reach.
I even have a couple small boxes with paper targets over them set up on the other side of my room that I practice my front sight alignment, and shooting. Usually during commercials, with my very realistic airsoft pistol (30 bucks from walmart, just like a real 9mm auto)
Most of all that is for my own entertainment, and because I enjoy it all as a hobby more than some sort of serious training I need to keep me safe. I know this isnt the place to talk about my "beliefs" But I believe we are all safe, all the time, and there is nothing to fear other than fear it's self. Life is perfect and exactly as it should be, other wise it would be some other way.