wow... castle law here right?
Yes, and no..."Castle Law" is a bit of a generic term for modifications to the laws about defending yourself. For example, in Hawaii, you don't have to retreat from your house before you employ lethal force,
assuming you can articulate fear of death, great bodily injury, kidnapping, rape, or forcible sodomy.In addition, in Hawaii, even if you have sufficient justification for the use of deadly force, you may still be sued in civil court.
Other state's "Castle Laws" have provisions about "presumption of deadly intent," which means that if someone broke into your house, the law assumes there was sufficient justification for employing deadly force, even if you couldn't articulate a specific fear that would otherwise justify the use of said deadly force. Sometimes various "Castle Laws" include protection from civil suits.
I don't know where this happened, but there are some states (actually just one that I can think of off the top of my head - New Jersey) that require you to retreat from your own home in an attempt to avoid the use of deadly force before you can be legally justified in using deadly force.
Regardless, that woman deserves a lot of respect. It was obvious she didn't want to use the gun, and is another fine example that runs counter to the generally accepted (at least in the popular media) notion that anyone who has, or uses a gun in self defense is just some looney looking for an excuse to kill someone with their gun....