going to jail for protecting your home? thats a wives tale .you might get detained for questioning but you will not go to prison.
if you use excessive force you can go to jail. so if someone steals your rims and you shoot him 20 times you will go to jail as that was not needed.
but if someone puts a knife to you and says gimme your rims you can shoot.
if your life is in danger you can endanger the attackers life legally.
also a live attacker can defend him/her person. but a dead one can not. i would rather push my chances defending myself against the dead one. but only if i had to shoot. i have to be in some bad circumstances to fire for defense. but i am not afarid to if need be.
buy some rubber slugs and use those before you use real lead if your worried about killing and going to jail. they hurt and leave marks on the person. so they can be traced. some break ribs and other bones too.
they make 12 gauge taser slugs too. they destroy non leathly but are costly
i dont know if thats 100%.
most of the time tax payers pay for that ^