The army sere instructors have studied this stuff to death, and have chosen the .22 rimfire semi-auto pistol as the ideal sere weapon.
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Whenever the unarmed folks ask which firearm to acquire, many of the responses seem to assume that the new gun owner will immediately acquire the skills and tolerances necessary to cope with 12 gauge pumps, high-capacity 9mm semi-autos, and military caliber long arms. Bad assumption. This sort of introduction to firearms is analogous to taking a new skier to the top of a black diamond trail and shoving him off, expecting skills to develop on the way down. Good way to discourage a new skier. It is easy to short-shuck a pump gun, easy to make an unloaded -gun error with a semi auto, easy to become gunshy with 30 caliber turnbolts. Folks new to firearms should start with wysiwyg weapons-.22 is a great place to start-revolvers - you can see the cartridges; single shot .22 rifles-there is no cartridge in battery unless you pick one up and put it in the chamber. Single and double barrel shotguns are immune to the mechanical failures of the magazine-fed weapons. If the new gun owner is bitten by the bug, he or she can easily move up to the larger bore/larger capacity weaopons as they develop the skills. I love the discussions, too-but we should try to be aware of the audience, and allow them the same, sensible introduction to firearms that miost of us had as kids-