My friend had his house broken into last night.

My good friend had his house broken into last night, while he and his family slept. Everyone's OK, but it got me thinking about what-would-I-do.Background, we both live in center-city Philly, he is in a nicer neighborhood, house off the street, pretty private, not what you would typically think of a prime target (wrong!). He is anti-gun (rethinking this now), and doesn't have an alarm (I warned him!) He wakes up to a bunch of his shit on the 1st 2 floors (4 floor townhouse) rummaged through, scattered all over, and 10-pgs of crazy hand written jibberish from the guy apologizing for breaking in, saying he was being followed, needed some food and a shower, he was very anxious, he has a beautiful house, he's very sorry, please don't report this, etc, etc. So it was a mentally ill homeless guy, he got in through a basement window around the back accessed through his patio...not easy to get at. So the guy was non-violent, didn't steal anything that he can tell, stayed away from the bedrooms, and he just ate some food and made a bit of a mess.BUT, this happened while my friend, his GF, and his 8-yo daughter slept...just steps away. His Golden Retriever is apparently worthless, and didn't wake or do anything!OK, so my buddy just learned a tough lesson in home security, but he got lucky.....now on to my scenario/question:IF IT HAPPENED TO ME, given that I am a gun owner, etc...lets say my alarm wasn't armed, middle of the night, and my dog (pitbull) woke me up to an intruder downstairs (I also have a 4-story townhome)....I know the what this sub says is you should lock your door and call the police....Well in Philly the police aren't always super quick to respond. No BS, over the years, there have been a few times I tried to call 911 (for theft reports, etc) and the line was busy for 5-10 min, I shit you not. Lets say I call, but still feel obliged to protect my property.So this is not a question about specifics, or should you hole up or confront the BG. Its about what do you do if you are in this position where you have to decide. Its my feeling that if there is someone in my house, especially at night, I am not going to attempt to restrain or subdue them. I would not hesitate to take them out (obviously with identifying its not my wife...no Oscar Pistorius here), I hope to never be put in this position, but its what I know I would do.So what if my BG was like my friend's BG, just a mentally ill homeless guy, with no apparent violent intentions. I would not be able to psychoanalyze in that moment, and he would have the same fate as someone bent on hurting my family. I feel like this reality is shitty, but its a terrible choice I would not hesitate to make...do you agree or disagree?ALSO, PA is a castle doctrine state. I was discussing this with another non-gun owner friend. In my understanding, you don't have to prove malicious intent or physical threat if someone breaks in....the act of breaking in is a lethally defensible act. Is this correct? Also, is there anything you do have to prove? Like you don't know the person?, that they did break in?, etc? How does it work? To be absurd, imagine a person was a sociopath, and wanted to kill someone. If they had a house guest, and shot them in the middle of the night, how would the police process that vs the scenario described above? How does one substantiate the conditions that qualify an appropriate Castle Doctrine self-defense kill? via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/2KnpD9O