Reply #7: Why not!

[brokensymmetry]

First, let’s establish (or at least, try to establish) the relevance of the statement about police protecting individuals.

Some venues have ample police protection and crime rates are low; hence residents enjoy short response times. Other venues have long response times. In order that you can have a better insight into my position, I will mention that police response times in my area range from thirty to forty-five minutes for burglars in action. Even if the response time were five minutes, such a period seems very long when one is afraid. It is very long time indeed if one is being actively attacked.

While your point about changing the system is well taken, I perceive that as being a long term strategy. It doesn’t help much when one is faced with the immediate reality of a criminal break-in. Further, merely establishing liability on the part of the police may not suffice; money may not cure the consequences of assault.
You observe that it is “… very difficult to say "gun saves life" with certainty.”, and that’s true enough. Indeed, the lack of objective data is at the very core of the greater societal debate since we are faced with pitting one person’s beliefs against another. That being the case, it is unlikely that you will convince me – nor will I convince you – of the relative merits (or lack thereof) of using a firearm for self-defense.
Your subsequent points about the intruder are not relevant. The homeowner is unlikely to know the criminal background of an intruder. Whether such an intruder is armed or not is quite difficult to determine, especially in high stress situations, which these generally are. Delay in acting, such as required for a verbal warning, could result in the demise of the homeowner.

You also mention the three shots. Interestingly enough, people involved in such conflicts tend to not know how many shots they fired. They will generally believe they fired one or two shots, when they have in fact fired many more. This is particularly the case when a semiautomatic pistol is involved.

Given a choice between the chance of injury or death of me or an intruder, I’ll opt for the intruder every time. Your Grace’s mileage may vary. :-)