“Holy smokes. If I ever find myself in a similar situation, I hope I have the guts to fire to kill.”
You really have to make up your mind before it happens and train yourself to do so. But once there, you also have to train yourself to restrain if not warranted. A guy may be roaming around your house looking like he’s about to break in, when, in fact, it’s a gas company guy trying to find the meter at night (for whatever reason). You really want to wait for some positive action...like breaking a window before taking action.
It’s high-stakes stuff. One mistake, either way, and it’s a life-changing (maybe life-ending) event.
We had a case where the person roaming around turned out to be a cop. Our house had been broken into and the next day a grungy looking guy was circling the house. Looking at windows from close up. My wife was home alone and called me in a panic. She was ready to shoot. I called the police to find out if they had someone there. About that time he finally pulled his badge out and displayed it.