I’m sorry it was meant to say “ with her lack of experience “ and we have a little boy and there is no doubt in my mind she would shoot someone to protect herself or him from danger
Ok, good deal. First issue is covered.
On to issue #2: her lack of experience with handguns. Do you have a .22 pistol y'all can use to get her up to speed? She needs to get comfortable with the basics of how to load/unload, grip, sight alignment, etc. Being able to get some live fire practice with cheaper/low recoiling .22 would be a great start. If you don't have a .22, you can still accomplish a lot of that for cheap with a pellet or airsoft pistol that closely matches common handguns. Academy has a Glock 19 airsoft for $70.
As far as choosing a gun goes, a lot of advice has already been given in this thread. One factor tops all others: reliability. The gun simply has to work. Fortunately, there are plenty of guns out there today that can be counted on to go bang every time you pull the trigger. Next on the list of importance: being able to work all of the controls. If a semi-auto, can she rack the slide (much more about proper technique than hand strength)? Can she easily operate the mag release/insert a magazine/be able to get proper finger placement on the trigger and pull it straight back without excessive effort? For a revolver, can she operate the cylinder release/load rounds into the chambers/get trigger finger placement and pull it properly? Generally speaking, revolver triggers tend to give women more issues than the ones on semi-autos do. Long, heavy trigger pulls don't do new shooters any favors; neither do short barrels. "Feels good in the hand" is fine.....to a certain point. But it doesn't matter how good the gun feels if she can't operate it properly. And I've had several people, as well as myself, who have liked the way a gun felt just by gripping it but then didn't like it once they actually shot it.
As others have said, by far the best way to go about finding the right gun is to have her shoot as many different ones as possible. Unfortunately, you don't live close to any ranges that have rental guns that I'm aware of. You might have to make a day of it and run up to Arkansas Armory in Sherwood or The Shooter's Gallery at Don's Weaponry in NLR; both of them have rental guns. Whether you go to a range with rentals or are at the gun store checking out different ones from the case, here is generally what to look for: reputation for reliability, able to reach/operate all the controls, and good sights she can actually see. Looking at the list of current rental guns available at Arkansas Armory according to their website, if I was taking a new shooter looking for a CCW gun, the ones I'd have them try out are: Sig P365, M&P9 Shield, .380 EZ Shield, Glock 26, Glock 43, Walther PPS, S&W 642.
