Let me tell you something ... if a group of looters breaks into this guy's house and one of them gets an arrow through the torso or skull, I'm going to bet you that the rest are going to scatter like rats.
Personally, I think the best weapon for any kind of defense (other than a firearm) is a bottle of hornet spray and a lighter. Think of what happens when you use a can of hair spray and hold a lighter in front of it ... except that with this in hand, the flame that is produced is not a cloud, but a narrow cone that can be aimed and concentrated in a small area. It's all in the way the hornet spray is designed to kill hornets in a nest without forcing you to get any closer than 25+ feet away.
I can just imagine how a "Redneck meets NYC Looter" scene might unfold in one of those outer boroughs.
Like I said, better than nothing. However, when I hear a bump in the night, I can guarantee you the first thing I reach for is not my compound bow, because I have that option. This man may not, but he should.
Ummm ...plenty enough well heeled folk on the Upper West Side and Upper East Side of Manhattan as well even a good amount of liberals, men and women. I can count off 20-25 of my old friends and acquaintances off the top of my head. The armed native NYC dwellers all seemed to have relatives or second homes well past city borders where handguns are easier to acquire. Lots of the transplants brought up never registered family guns from Texas, Mississippi, Virginia, Indiana, etc. Pretty much all were capable established professionals or business owners. One guy, a rotund happy Coptic Egyptian had been a weapons designer/engineer back home. If he considered you a close friend he was more than happy to do repairs and tune ups just to keep his hand in. Lots of surprises in the Big Apple
I once saw someone do that with a can of starting fluid (ether). It created a fireball that was 10-12 feet in diameter.