Life is messy and would always continue to be so. If someone breaks into your home you have a lot of choices to make and suddenly, and you might not have enough time to make them. If the person who breaks in has a gun and intent to murder you and your family, you could be the only thing that could stop that, so do you try to take them out in a non-lethal manner, potentially understanding that if they kill you your whole family is going to die next? If you're armed, do you hesitate and ask questions? Are you confident enough that this person isn't a legal threat to you and your family? How can you know, after all? And if you do hesitate, for how long? What do you do and say, exactly? Remember, you might only have 3 seconds left before you're murdered and then your entire family is subsequently murdered, so take all the time you need.

Here's the thing though. You broke into my home and I don't know you. You broke into my home. All I know about you thus far is that you - for one reason or another - are willing to disregard a very pivotal aspect of the overarching trusting society. This is my castle in my own kingdom and I the ruler of that kingdom. It is my responsibility to first and foremost, protect those under my care. I MUST protect my family first and you, a distant second. I don't necessarily have time to ask questions, or try alternative methods of detainment that may not work. I own firearms and have gone shooting many times. There is a reason why both military and police are trained to shoot in the torso - leg/arm shots are to difficult even on a non-moving target, and even if you DO succeed with such a shot, it guarantees nothing. I could shoot an assailant in the leg and they could still have full mobility in that leg, or they now shoot me with the gun they were holding, then move on to murder 4 other people, 3 being children.

The notion that you bring up shooting to disable tells me you don't own a firearm and have possibly never even fired one. This is a children's fairytale. With lives on the line with someone who broke into your home you can't rely on a sentiment so childish. Tasers don't even work on everyone, nor does pepper spray. People have been murdered after being tased. Here is a excerpt from the New Haven Register:

Several high-profile cases involve violent suspects or murderers who were completely unaffected by police Tasers. According to data and law enforcement field reviews, Tasers fail to incapacitate a target roughly 40% of the time.

With respect, homosapien, you seem super naive to the world. How old are you and where are you from? I ask that ironically understanding you are not likely to tell the truth to those questions.