Listening to some guys it quickly becomes clear that they believe that men know all about guns and women don't know a blasted thing about them. Therefore, it behooves the gentleman to pick out their lady's gun for her and share their infinite knowledge of all things that go bang. For this, the lady in question will swoon in perfect feminine fashion and end up being forever grateful.
Well, “He Who Is About To Sleep On The Couch”, let me share some facts with you. There is about a 99.9999% chance that you are fixing to make a big mistake. Women are capable of shooting anything that a man can shoot. A huge majority of those helpless damsels can shoot them darned well, too. And, trust me on this, women are perfectly capable of making up their own minds.
If you really want to help the lady in your life pick out a personal defense gun, I would suggest the following technique. You should begin by helping her arrange to shoot as large a number of different guns as possible. Make sure that all of the different action types are represented, including double-action revolvers.
If you can't find a nearby gun range that will rent these guns to you, call on all of your shooting buddies and amass the assortment of guns. Besides that, your chore will be to make sure that only guns of good quality are represented. The lady in question can then select the gun that she shoots best, handles best, and understands best.
The same goes for calibers. Make sure that she has an assortment of calibers from which to choose. While you may think that anything below a 10 mm is wimpy, she may do her best work with a .380 ACP. But you must also realize that most women can handle that 10 mm just fine, too. Again, if she is making her choice from among proven defensive calibers, the choice is hers to make.
Finally, and I want to be careful not to miss stepping on any toes here, if you think you are going to teach her all she needs to know about defensive shooting, you are probably kidding yourself. You would be a whole lot smarter to encourage her to sign up for a defensive class with a truly professional school. She'll learn a whole lot more valuable, life-saving information than she will from a Keyboard Commando doing the Internet Strut. And, I know that this may sound revolutionary, but you might even want to consider taking the defensive class with her.
“Hey, honey, look what I bought ya!” is usually a recipe for disaster. We might ought to consider giving the ladies in our lives a bit of credit and allow them to select what works for them.
Besides all that, you will find that the holidays will go ever so much smoother. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!
