Good Thread...!
First and foremost, I think any individual legally allowed to posses and carry a weapon should do so if the heart or mind makes that decision. And that includes 24/7 carrying in the home. I do not do that.
I carried a weapon on duty for 33 years. It was part of me every day. I was not required to carry off duty. It was allowed and encouraged. If I was armed off duty and I got into a scenario where I announced that I was a peace officer and subsequent shots were fired I would have been covered by my employer the same as if I was on duty.
After 16 years as an officer and 17 years as a field sergeant I retired. My retired I.D. card said I could CCW. Now I am pretty much the same as any CCW holder in this country. Retired peace officer doesn't matter.
When I was working, at least for the last 10 years, I was the on call sergeant. That meant I had a marked unit parked in my driveway every night.
There were people that didn't like cops. Any noise I heard after dark I grabbed a 1911A1. Any ring on my doorbell, I grabbed the .45.
I did that for almost two years after I retired. No marked unit in the driveway, no nothing.
I realized I had to mentally slow down.
Don't get me wrong. I have a sap and old night stick in the umbrella holder next to the front door. I live on a cliff and behind my house is nothing but woods. There is a 870 loaded with ooo buck next to the back door. There is a 9m/m auto high on the cabinet next to the kitchen table. Up stairs there is a m1 carbine in a rack above the den door.
But I do not carry a weapon in my own house.