I'd go easy on the having a weapon ready thing.

Something like 80% of gunshot victims get shot with their own gun (this statistic comes from "archive" memory, if you get my gist, so feel free to correct or confirm at will folks).

Anyway, the percentage is high enough to be able to say fairly categorically that you're safer if you don't have a weapon.

I wouldn't want to be lying on my bed with someone leaning over me trying to get a hammer out from under my pillow and then have it taken off me whilst in that position (not to mention it wouldn't be very comfortable).

Tactically it makes no sense.

I do Ju Jitsu and know all about defending yourself on your back and hiting upwards is pretty pointless as you have no body weight behind you. Especially if you are a woman fighting up against a man.

Eyes and testicles are vulnerable in an assailant, and you can quickly incapacitate the meanest meathead if you get a half decent grip on either.

Best to go for both, he will instinctively defend one, leaving the other open.

If he does manege to grab both hands, that means he'll have none left to stop your knee as it plants itself in his groin in a permanent fashion.

But back to Susan's point,

Imagine if you'd had a gun, how much worse it could have turned out.

Would you have wanted your son to witness a murder - of anyone in the room? or worse be killed himself?

Bringing out a hammer might just make the burglar panic - especially in a room full of family members all panicking too - and then your son might really have witnessed something much more seriously traumatizing.

Thank God that wasn't the case. Staying calm and thinking was clearly the right option this time.

Well done!