Quote:
Leigh_Ratcliffe

.357 is too heavy for most ladies. Unless she's a trained shot. Recoil from the first round will rip the gun right out of her hands (from not holding it properly). Get her a .38 Ladysmith. Load it with MagSafe's or Glazer Safety Slugs. Much lighter recoil and one round anywhere in the center of mass is uniformly fatal.


Malpaso
Unless she's a trained shot, she shouldn't have a gun in her hands. Nobody should.



Couple of points

A .357 is more versatile. You can shoot either 38 or 357 rounds. And the pistol being "ripped out of your hands" is a bit too Hollywood. My 115# wife has little trouble with a .357.

A Ladysmith is a nice pistol, but more marketing than anything. Get a nice pistol and custom grips. Everybody is a bit different and the word "Lady" on the frame or box doesn't make it suitable for all women. Neither does .357 make it automatically unsuitable either. Recoil is more in the head than in the hands or shoulder.

And "one round in the center of mass" is anything but "uniformly fatal".



And while training is very desirable and necessary, I don't think lack of formal training should preclude firearm ownership or use. Many more examples of the "untrained" using firearms sucessfully than of innocent bystanders being "caught in the crossfire" so to speak. Fo the tens, if not hundreds, of millions of firearms in the US, true accidents are remarkably rare. IF only cars were as safe! If you read John Lott's book, More Guns, Less Crime, merely the presence of a firearm in the intended victims hand will discourage a large percentage of perps. They like easy marks.