[Serious]Redditors who have had to kill in self defense, Did you ever recover psychologically? What is it to live knowing you killed someone regardless you didn't want to do it?

This probably doesn't really count but I'll share it anyway.

My Dad started dating this lady we'll call Beth when I was around 12. Well throughout their relationship I never really liked Beth, she always seemed kinda off and the rest of my family felt the same way about her as I did. Well after them dating for several months my Dad decided to break it off, this did not go over well with her.

A few weeks I was sound asleep at my dad's house it was around 3am when I heard the banging on our door. I jumped out of bed, still like half asleep and go to the front door to check everything out.

My dad is standing at our front door with his 12 Guage mossberg pump shotgun in his hands his foot on the door trying to keep it closed all the while this crazy bitch is banging on our door so hard she's almost broken the door frame. But here's the kicker, my dad was only wearing his "tidy whities" and his big ass glasses.

So after a minute or two she stops beating the door and just starts screaming at my dad, he says he's armed and he's going to shoot her if she doesn't stop, I would've already shot that bitch through our door if it was me. In her drunken haze she openly tell me dad to shoot her, she's about 10 feet back from our door now, so my dad steps outside and fires two shots into the ground, holy fuck it was loud. Imagine a 12 Guage pump going off in suburbia at 3am.

The crazy thing is that it didn't scare her off, she fucking ran back at the door and my dad barely got it closed before she was beating it again, she eventually stopped and got in her car and drove off. The cops showed up like 5 mins later and they said they had already picked her up not far away.

Now bare in mind that I live in Texas and using a weapon to defend oneself and property is heavily suppprted so I was kinda upset when the officers put my dad in the back of a squad car for a little while and also berated him for using his shotgun so close to other houses. That were mad until one of the officers saw a shell and noticed it was light bird shot and not something heavier that could cause damaged to its surroundings. I'll never forget what the officer said when he saw the shell, "Hell man I heard of people shooting crack heads with bird shot and they didn't even flinch."

If anyone's is interested I've got plenty more stories of Beth, she's tried to break into our house more than once.

/r/AskReddit Thread