Canazes,
The title of post that prompted me to ask this included the words "your wife." if that doesn't presume a male audience, I don't know what would.
Not a criticism of the poster, just an observation. I think we all know female shooters who are superb, and I also think shooting activities benefit greatly from their participation. So it just makes ensure that message doesn't get missed or confused.
Perhaps it wasn't the presumption of an all male audience, but a deliberate attempt by a fellow poster looking for advice on how to deal with a situation.
My wife is not into firearms at all. The concept of researching firearms and ammunition is about as exciting to her as researching hammers. Like a hammer, she knows that she has a use for a firearm. She also wants to know how to use it properly. If I had told her, "here are some websites to research, some courses you can sign up and learn more, etc." she would have been pissed.
She looks to me to help her narrow down all the choices. She doesn't want to evaluate the thousands of viable carry options, calibers, ammunition, etc. She just wants me to narrow it down to 3 or 4 effective choices and let her pick the one she likes the best from there. This was the process that led her to her S&W 442 and more recently a Ruger LCP. She has subsequently taken her CCL course and obtained her CCL.
She goes to the range and shoots w/ me about 1/month, practicing her marksmanship and drawing from her various carry options. She is good w/ her firearm(s). She carries almost 100% of the time.
She isn't going to participate in this forum (or any other firearms related forum). It isn't because "she's just a girl" or any sexist BS like that. It's because the firearm has no fascination to her - it's just a hammer. She doesn't share my passion to find the VERY BEST ONE (or three) for my purposes and constantly evaluate all new products to see if they are now worthy of displacing one of my top picks as the next VERY BEST ONE. She doesn't care if she has the VERY BEST One - if it's comfortable to carry, reliable and she can shoot it accurately she is happy - they are just hammers to her.
I don't think my wife's opinion of firearms is that much different than a lot of other women's. When I see a post like that, I assume that the OP has discussed firearms w/ his spouse and now she as agreed but basically wants him to handle all the research (just like my wife). I think he was looking for opinions from other husbands that had done the same sort of thing for their spouses.
I answered his post and saw no assumptions of an all male audience in it - just a specific request for a specific need.
David
