There were a few break ins in my neighborhood about 3-4 years ago. They coincided with fake door to door salesmen ripping people off. One of my neighbors was a cop, and said he suspected they were connected. A guy knocked on my door asking to clean my carpets. I said no, and he got pushy and walked into my house to see how much carpet I had so he could clean a room for free, despite me asking him to leave. I always left my gun in the hall closet, but had went to the range earlier in the week. I got lazy and didn't put my better ammo back in the magazine. I calmly grabbed my unloaded VP9 out of the hall closet when he walked down the hall. He stopped at the end of the hall and turned around to my unloaded gun pointed at him. He about #### his pants and ran out of the house.
Having said all of that, I don't own my gun for protection. Most houses are broken into when no one is home, and in the chance I were home, I'd sleep through it. I mainly just have mine to mess around at the range, but to me it's worth having just in case. If you know what you're doing, and you store the gun properly, there is no downside.