I'M sorry about your loss, amazing they did not steal your guns,probably just hungry and too pRoud to ask for help.
Sadly its a sign of the times, moving is not going to change anything, it may give you a sense of security, but it will be fleeting!!!!
I have lived outside St.Louis since 1972 at one time 120 miles and there were still break ins, theft from vehicles etc.in 1995 my home was broken into and all of my guns stolen then, the a##holes came back the following week end for the electronics a new alarm scared them off.3 yrs ago someone stole my utility trailer off my truck sitting in my driveway while I was at work. I now have locks on my trailers, and my work shop, will they stop a thief? nope just slow them down.

One of the purposes of this site is to answer questions about photography. Don't apologize for asking.
f/stop is an aperture designation that indicates the amount of light that a lens allows to reach the sensor in the camera. The higher the number, the less light. The trade off is that lower aperture numbers, although allowing more light, produce less depth of field (DOF). That is the area of the photo that is in focus. For a landscape higher numbers are usually desirable to get as much in focus as possible. That's usually f/8 or higher. For a portrait where you want the person's face to stand out lower numbers are desirable. Lenses of different focal lengths can have the same aperture numbers. It's all in the design of the lens. Primes and some zoom lenses, usually higher priced, have constant aperture such as f/4 or f/2.8, or lower for primes. Many zooms have variable apertures, such as your 18-55 and 55-250. As you zoom out the maximum aperture decreases from f/4 to f/5.6. Understanding aperture can help you get better results with almost any photo.