When we lived in Philadelphia when I was a kid some guy kicked our door in in the middle of the night...My dad ran down the stairs with his gun and the guy saw it and ran right out the door only to be hit by a police car. He had a knife in his had.
Gun beats knife....The exact scenario the 3 simple solutions could not have prevented, but the gun did. BTW Mark, glad to here both situations were resolved without harm to you or your family.
Peace Out~