Opinions?

I am in the market for a small calibur concealable handgun. I know I am likely to get a ton of comments about being a "gun nut" and about gun control, but I am not going about this lightly. I have recently taken a handgun safety course and applied for my concealed carry permit. My reasoning is this; First, there have been several high profile shootings, robberies, and kidnappings here in K-town of late. I know the likelyhood is still stacked way against any personal experiences, but I would rather know that I could protect myself and my wife if need be. Second, on the topic of the homefront, the last time I called 911 in my area there was a two week response time. No joke. There was a group trying to gain access to my neighbor's house so I called the sheriff's department. The group got in the storm door, tried for about 30 minutes to get into the inner door of the house, evidently got bored and left. Litterally, 2 weeks to the day the sheriff himself called and I quote said " Hello neighbor. I understand you had some problems a few days ago. Did you get everything taken care of?" So my guess is if anyone tried to break in to my house I won't have many options as far as appropriate responses go. In that case I would prefer to call and report myself firing on someone than my parents calling to report my or my wife's murder. As far as experience goes, I have handled guns since I was around 8 (under close adult supervision) and consider myself responsible.
I am considering a Walther .40 cal PPS. I like the idea of a 19 oz 3 inch .40 calibur. Although, I am also looking at the Taurus Millineum line. They manufacture a nice .45 that isn't much heavier (22oz) and about the same length.
The long and the short of it is that I feel strange even writing this, but like Bob Dylan said "the times they are a changin".