It's not a stupid woman thing at all. It's a stupid man thing. They know just about enough to know which end of a gun to not point at themselves, but by virtue of one chromosome they become the gun expert when it comes to defending the "little woman". Testosterone blocks them from ever considering that their other half might be able to form a clue on their very own.
Now on the other side, men by socialization are often more familiar with guns. Thus they face a challenge to introduce a woman to shooting without belittling their independent reasoning abilities. I am a reasonably knowledgeable shooter trying to get my wife to keep a gun around since being alone and in an extremely rural area can go bad. She would probably be a gun hating liberal except she has a basic libertarian understanding that no one else is bound or even likely in the middle of nowhere to come to her aid. She may never like guns, despite my efforts to slide her towards .22s and tin cans, but she will accept them. I've taken the tact of trying to invite her to come shooting with me and let her try various pistols I own to see what she likes. I have my ideas about shootability, terminal ballistics, ease of use, and reliability so I try to introduce her to pistols that fit the bill. Now if she doesn't like one I won't push it. In fact, she likes my 642 J-frame but I told her she'd have to practice a bunch since I consider it to be an expert's gun of limited capabilities and I myself am uneasy carrying it alone.
Right now I started her on a Vaquero .44 shooting .44spl as a house gun, something low fuss she can leave in her desk. It has limitations such as loading speed and need to decock if you cocked it for no good reason. She's got a masters degree, she can figure out my explanations. Why that? From my view it is big, no mistaking she has a gun if she ever brings it out. .44Spl CCi Gold Dot can end a lot of problems quick. Eventually I'd like to try her on a Marlin lever of the same caliber. She is less shy of it than black plastic, it looks like the toys she played cowboys and indians with long ago. I predicted that and it was in fact her first comment. Less negative connotations in her mind make her more apt to want to shoot. Why fight the negative connotations now? Let her learn on her own through positive experience like I did, hell pistols used to make me nervous becuase I knew they weren't good for anything but killing, had the shakes the first six months everytime I shot my first pistol. Now I still know that's all a pistol is good for, it's just that I'm okay with the fact.
Other than that, the Glock 17 lessons continue. She has yet to shoot it beyond 5 yds, but she has yet to flinch, for once my trigger control instructions got through to someone perfectly. Next up is a trip to my collection and then to the store to feel up all the guns. It may not be "manly" but much like any gender of inexperienced shooter she will probably select a gun based on how it feels, how much it weighs, and to some degree how it looks. There is no sense in me telling her those are bad criteria, why turn her off the experience from the word go? I'll take what she likes and work with it.
My rules for bringing in a woman new to shooting are not hard. I am absolute stern talking testosterone man about one thing only, the four rules. I am still nicer to her about it than any other range retard, probably because in the back of my pea brain I know I have to go home with her.
So the rules are:
-Listen. If she doesn't want to go shooting, don't go. If she wants to quit, quit. If something bothers her listen and fix it, don't lecture on how to be manly.
-Don't show off. Demonstrate what you want her to do and nothing more. Be realistic, as in start up close, don't make her run Bill drills her first range trip etc. I will talk a procedure through, demonstrate it dry, have her do it dry as I coach the same as I initially briefed, then I do it live fire, then have her do it.
-Encourage! My wife is a perfectionist. She has more precision/accuracy than most people I observe at the range. I have to tell her she is doing good. I saved her first target, wrote the date on it and all, and she kept it. That was at 4 yds. Would she have any positive memory if I had set her up to hit paper twice at 25yds?
-Make it fun, don't bother with talking about caliber wars, one shot stops, mindset, hollowpoint expansion etc. The point is to make a new shooter a competent shooter, the rest they can learn along the way gradually.
Now I say these are rules for taking a woman shooting because men and women are different and there is a social interaction there that can cloud instruction. For example, my wife will tune me right out if I adopt a paternal tone while giving instruction. Men, the gruffer I get, the more they listen. It is not sexist, just different rules for different people. I have rules for men too.
New men shooting rules:
-Show them the gun, bonus if it looks cool. Respond to "Is that a nine?" as appropriate.
-Show them which direction the bullets go in the magazine.
-Show them which direction the bullets go in the magazine again while muttering "it's not a clip!" to yourself.
-Show them which way the magazine goes in the gun.
-Leave the range and go have a very large beer. They now know it all and can now fly from the nest all by themselves. No, that ambulance racing past the bar towards the range is pure coincidence.
Seriously, I have successfully started several males on the path to safe shooting, on the whole I'd rather have a donkey kick me in the junk repeatedly than to ever teach another man that has been within 10ft of a firearms periodical publication. Or seen a movie, or had an uncle that was in 'nam, or .....
