T. Bracker asked:
What is the actual frequency of home invasions nationally? Just wondered?
As far as I can tell, there ain't really info for the category "home invasion" or "hot burglary."
Here is a link to DOJ info on what victims were doing when crimes were committed against them in 2002:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cvus/current/cv0264.pdf
You can see that some 24% of 458,460 reported victims of robbery were sleeping or doing some other activity at home at the time they were robbed. Then you see that about 26% of 3,055,720 burglaries occurred while the victim was home. Home invasions where the bad guys busted down the door and came in with weapons? I dunno.
To bolster my admonition that you should carry at home, here is another link from DOJ:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cvus/current/cv02107.pdf
On this page you will find that the police respond to reports of violent crime within five minutes some 30% of the time. That's if they respond. Five percent of the time the response time is listed as "Within 1 day."
What's worse , I'm sure that in many of these cases, the fuzz were called only after it was all over. If someone invades your home, are they gonna let you dial 911 and then say after summoning police, "You better get out of here! The cops might be here within five minutes! More likely it will be six minutes to an hour, but you never know." Will the phone be the first thing you reach for?
Not to say that you shouldn't call the po po at some time, but figure out for yourself when it is safe. I don't think the cops should get there and find skeletal remains and an irate homeowner saying, "That SOB tried to get at my little darling. I taught him good."
Here's the source of my lies, danged lies and statistics:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/welcome.htm