Hi Tinker
I'm glad to hear things went so well, much better than what would normally be expected. You actions are to be commended. You weren't the victim of a B&E at nighttime, you were the victims of what's called "Home Invasion" & the police are right to be very concern. The reason it a much more serious offence & carries a far heavier sentence is because the chance is for panic & then violence is pretty high. You couldn't have handled confronting the intruder better. You kept things calm & gave up what wasn't worth keeping. Lives have been lost for a lot less. As for keeping weapons around, don't, unless some one gets training in the use of them. As for what kind of traing I'd say any of the Filipino Martial Arts (Escrima, Kali or Arnis) would be the better. It's a stick & dagger style first then only after mastering that you go on to an open handed style. So you learn weapons 1st instead of last, rather than you would with many of the other Arts, if at all.
Anyway it's good to know that you've got the skills to take a bad situation & keep it in your control, at least as much as possible & have it coming out better than it could've been.
You need to have a talk with Bubba.

Barry