Dave, take a moment to read what you wrote! Wow, talk about being egocentric! Where is your self-confidence? Whatever happened to: experience, judgment, and good old fashioned know how? I’ve selected handguns for many women. In fact several of them sought me out in order to ask for my help.
I don’t tell accountants how to do my taxes; I don’t tell carpenter’s how to replace my roof; however, I have told their wives what guns to buy. What happens to these handguns? Good question! Like learning how to: bowl, fish, or play canasta, they are used to attain a certain level of proficiency before they are either thrown into a large handbag, or placed somewhere near the bed.
(Yes, there are women in this world who won’t carry a handgun for an extended period-of-time unless they remain thoroughly good and scared by whatever their life circumstances happen to be; but, neither you nor I are going to change that; and, the psychology behind this, ‘sheepish’ behavior has absolutely nothing to do with whatever handgun they started out carrying.)
Perhaps you do, or would; but, I do not allow students to dictate to me. If I’m the teacher then we do things my way until such a time that sufficient proficiency is reached. After that the student is welcome to select any handgun he or she wants. When my job as an instructor is finished, I no longer offer input into what weapon should be used.
However, during the learning curve things will get done my way. (Which is, by the way, exactly what the NRA requires of me!) I don’t recommend or prefer to start out inexperienced shooters with semi-automatic pistols. I’m not saying I never have; but, given my druthers, I prefer not to. Neither have I ever had a student who shot himself or anyone else by accident.
You know what they say: ‘Opinions are like noses; everyone has one.’ You need to remember that some people will pay you good money in order to form an opinion on a subject about which they know next-to-nothing. Pink pistols, lightweight pistols, cute pistols, small pistols, or whatever might be attractive to a woman who is new to firearms. However, none of this means that; ‘I like this one’, or; ‘This has the best recoil’ are acceptable reasons for an inexperienced shooter to buy a certain handgun.
When you’re on someone else’s payroll, you give him (or her) the gun you want them to become familiar and proficient with, and drill them over and over in how to handle and fire it correctly. After about 500 to 1,000 rounds that person should be well, ‘anchored’ enough with that particular weapon to adequately defend himself with some real pizzazz. If handgun self-defense were really all about, ‘This is what I feel like using;’ can you imagine all the missing fingers and toes, or how full the morgues would be!
You’ve got to crawl before you walk. You’ve, also, got to trust those with more experience than you in a certain subject to take you where you want to go. After you get there the rest is up to you – NOT before.
Understand?
