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Am I remembering correctly that you were in fencing at Purdue?

Yup.  Though the sport of fencing and actual sword combat are completely different.
Since then I've also had about 10 years of martial arts training including traditional weapons use (mostly staff and sword, but a touch of nunchaku....which I suck at).

We've done a couple of exercises where a swordsman goes up against a pistol armed opponent.  If the area is open and the distance is more than about 8 feet, the odds are obviously really really bad.  Closer than that though, you'd be surprised at how effective a forward dive roll fall into an upward thrust from a kneeling position is against a gunman.

It's just not something that a gunman usually prepares for.  In the stand-off, when the swordsman starts to move, he is dropping his center-mass as he moves forward, so usually the first round that the gunman gets off is high.  The recoil from the shot pulls the muzzle high, so there is an extra 1/4 second of time that the gunman needs to compensate for and to continue to lower his aim.  Even if the gunman can get a second shot off, it is usually somewhat panicked by the fact that the opponent is closing the distance quickly and is usually also high.  By then, if the roll is executed correctly, the slice is coming upward from close range towards either the gunman's shooting wrist or diagonally up the torso.

I mean, it's still not great odds, but if the gunman isn't expecting it, it's pretty hard to defend against.
Looks a bit like this:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcHRgY_nKEg

My home protection (from the bad people):


I can cave your head in with one, and put a hole in you with the other. 

Hammer and screw,not only a night out on the town

And they can put a hole in you at a distance, you can't.

Blunt objects are used more often in homicides than rifles.

you would never get that close

So you guys know that the intruder has a plan?  Or that he's on meth or something, but mapped this whole thing out??

You guys are so funny with your delusions of grandeur with this stuff.  
A vast majority of thieves are cowards and want an empty house.  They'd be more surprised you're home than you are that they're intruding in your home.
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IF your intruder is some kind of crack shot snooper, he's going to shoot you in your sleep.  None of us can predict how a home invasion will go, which means it's likely to just be a shitshow on all sides, with panic and errors all around.
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All I know is that if it comes to hand-to-hand, I have no fight experience, but I was an offensive lineman for years and am not small.  If he's a skinny tweaker piece of shit, I'm locking the front door and he's stuck in there with me.  And my hammer and screwdriver are all I need.  <-- delusion of grandeur, see

If I ever need to use lethal force, I'm going to want a firearm.  Not a hammer and screwdriver.  Or sword.

I hope that never happens obviously.  I don't keep a gun bedside.  Security here is pretty good.  

Most of the crime around us is car breakins and theft apparently.

 
A vast majority of thieves are cowards and want an empty house. 
.

Not cowards but it kinda ups their chances of success. So in a creepy kind of way good business sense. So what are your plans this week end?

I had this kind of chat with some French friends who visited us.  They were amazed that our house, and houses near us, had no fences.  In France, a neighborhood like ours would be heavily fenced in house by house.

I remarked that nearly every house would be armed.  They got it.

This is more true in the sticks, the lone farmhouse is not an easy target unless vacated, and even then, neighbors often spot unusual activity.

A burglar is going to look for low lying fruit and minimal risk obviously.

My dog is a 70 lb black lab mix and she wouldn't harm a fly, but she barks extremely loud at any and every stranger in the house (or within 50 yards of the house if she can see or hear them).  She, too, is  light sleeper so there's zero chance of an intruder entering without our knowledge.

So you guys know that the intruder has a plan?  Or that he's on meth or something, but mapped this whole thing out??

You guys are so funny with your delusions of grandeur with this stuff. 
A vast majority of thieves are cowards and want an empty house.  They'd be more surprised you're home than you are that they're intruding in your home.
.
IF your intruder is some kind of crack shot snooper, he's going to shoot you in your sleep.  None of us can predict how a home invasion will go, which means it's likely to just be a shitshow on all sides, with panic and errors all around.
.
All I know is that if it comes to hand-to-hand, I have no fight experience, but I was an offensive lineman for years and am not small.  If he's a skinny tweaker piece of shit, I'm locking the front door and he's stuck in there with me.  And my hammer and screwdriver are all I need.  <-- delusion of grandeur, see

I think it's strange that you assume everyone with a gun (or a sword) and a plan for defending himself and his family, has some delusion of grandeur about taking on a criminal-- that we actually want or even crave such an encounter.  

An assumption like that might be warranted for the open-carry dipshits who walk around town with rifles slung over their shoulders, but people with handguns in their bedside table aren't really the same category.