Originally Posted by Seahawk
I am no expert on ballistics and the proper round for self defense for a young female.
So when my daughter graduated from college and wanted a pistol for self defense, I asked a lot of questions and developed a matrix of sorts to help guide her decision.
First of all, my daughter grew up on a farm and was exposed to and shot a wide variety of fire arms. She, as it seems with your daughter, was not starting from zero in terms of comfort and familiarity with pistols.
Second, she does not like semi auto pistols. I have a number of pistols so we were able to shoot, or borrow, the whole menu. We settled on finding the right revolver.
Third and most contentiously, caliber. I added "self-defense round caliber" to the list of things I won't talk about with friends right after, "what's the best truck", "Ginger or Marianne" and "John Deere or MF"?
There is no more earnest a discussion backed up by a thousand provable variables, each simultaneously validating and cancelling the efficacy of another thousand variables, than what is the best caliber of self defense round.
I thought the floor would be .380. More on that later.
I then turned to a friend of mine who is in the self defense business and provides security for people who need it. I also spend a great deal of time picking the brains of a lot of other friends of mine, former SEALS and a few guys that work for Academi, the former Blackwater folks in NC. I have spent a few weeks there doing UAS stuff.
As you might expect, they broke down self defense into discrete elements, with the drawing of a gun a failure in their mind. Situation awareness and avoidance was everyone's mantra.
So, options depleted, a gun gets drawn, where are we? What is best? Again, discrete elements, who, what where and why for both the aggressor and the defender.
I can't go into every situation, but suffice it to say that at the top end of the predator chain, it really doesn't matter depending on when the gun is drawn. At the lower end, anything that goes bang works, again, depending on when the gun is drawn.
What they all left me with is the common sense behind the ballistics: Buy them a gun they will shoot, enjoy shooting and become proficient with. Have them take self defense classes that focus on practical applications of situational awareness. Layer defense at home...alarms, lights, a panic button hidden near the bed.
Carry versus no carry, etc. These are all personal decisions.
I can tell you that we settled on a Ruger in .22WMR. A lot of thought went into the decision, no doubt much of which will find no purchase here. I did the math, looked at the statistics, watched her WANT to go shoot the gun, and decided that sans a Moro Rebellion, we made the right choice.
Yours will no doubt be different.
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