My mother (she’s in her mid 70’s and healthy as a horse) is taking the whole pandemic issue reasonably seriously, she’s sheltering in place and social distancing, but her one deficiency is her lack of a defensive firearm, she jokingly says she’ll be okay with her BB gun and crowbar
she lives in rural Seacoast Northern New England (one of the states with Constitutional Carry), but she doesn’t have a firearm (just no real interest until now, not an anti, but not her thing...)
she has access to my firearms inventory, and I’m going to loan her one of my guns until she can purchase her own (I’d gift her one of mine, but she wants to buy her own finally)
She has limited grip strength and has trouble racking the slide of my 9mm handguns, so that reduces options a bit (she’s interested in the Shield 9 EZ but good luck finding one ATM)
her options are;
H&R Pardner 28 gauge Compact
H&R Topper Deluxe Classic 20 gauge
Ruger 10/22 (heavily customized ‘14 contest winner model)
Marlin 25 bolt action
Ruger Super Single Six .22LR/Magnum
S&W Shield 9 2.0 (my CCW)
CZ-75b
the 9mm’s will be difficult for her to rack so they’re a less viable option, the shotguns have more potential stopping power, but are single shot, the Single Six with Magnums is a possibility, but is slow to reload, I’m thinking the best choice of the poor choices above is probably the 10/22, I can even put it back in the original stock and take off the red dot, to simplify things for her..
none of the choices are particularly good, but I think the 10/22 is the most reasonable compromise, I have 5 10 rounders and two 25 round BX-25’s and plenty of .22LR stored, plus, she can practice in the backyard range.
she’ll most likely never need to use it anyway, but I’d feel better if she had something more substantial than a Daisy Red Ryder and a crowbar (she’s not fighting off headcrab zombies anyway...
)
so what would you suggest?