There are many magical beliefs when it comes to guns, mostly the belief that it somehow protects you against being attacked or shot. If one is concerned about that, doing the paperwork for a ballistic vest and getting in shape is probably going to be more beneficial.
Another interesting aspect are the cases where the presence of a gun in the home turned against the homeowner. Case from Arizona last week:
http://www.yourwestvalley.com/surprise/article_3bfcd520-71e6-11e1-bf84-0019bb2963f4.html?photo=0
Burglar gets into home through unlocked sliding glass door, finds homeowners gun and threatens homeowner in his bedroom with his own gun. Also illustrates the fallacy that 'the guy with the gun allways wins', homeowner threw the guy accross the room, disarmed him and kept him pinned until the police arrived.
A family in MN wasn't that lucky. Drunk drifter breaks into the house to steal their truck, finds homeowners shotgun, kills the homeowner and his son, just leaving the severely injured wife to talk about it:
http://mankatofreepress.com/local/x519299060/Zabawa-trial-Waseca-watches-waits
Among the cases where the homeowner heroically slays the intruder, examples like the ones above are frequently omitted.