The issue here is that you can't forcibly empower a person. So you have to manipulate her. Get her a gift certificate for her and a friend to attend a Refuse To Be a Victim class. (If it's paid for she will feel obligated to go. Get a certificate for a neary restaurant as well, so they can make it a girl's night out).
Make it clear that it is NOT a gun class. It is a home/auto/personal safety class. The instructor starts easy by talking about safety in the home (fire and CO detectors), home security and easy things you can do/buy to make yourself a little more safe without spending a lot of money (window locks, door jammers, wide lens peepholes). Then progresses to personal safety when out of the home; car safety (wear your seat belt!), ATM awareness, stuff like that. Then lastly get into stranger/danger stuff. (They touch on family/danger, as well, and the basic right that every person has to be safe in their home, so those of you who like to tune your wife up or talk to her right up close might want to rethink sending her to the class.)
In sum, it's a class that helps to form mindful awareness and provides definitions and a space to consider that life is terribly dangerous without caving in to some husband's or dad's "paranoia."