Any suggestions for getting my daughter-n-law more comfortable with guns?

[Rayne]

My daughter-n-law is a petite little thing, who doesn't mind my son having guns, but he wants her to be comfortable enough to handle one herself. He has started working out of town more and wants her to be able to defend herself and their baby if trouble should come knocking at the door while he's gone.
Any suggestions on how to get her interested in handling & shooting, so she can be prepared?

 

[Round Ball]

I would think the first thing would be to take her out just to plink with a 22 cal take it very slod make it fun and a little competive with friendly wagers. Make sure she wins then after a couple times move to a little larger cal but be sure it is fun for her and don,t force things at all.Good luck and be sure you teach her saftey first and formost be safe

 

[Stubborn Yankee]

I would really recommend getting her to an Appleseed put on by the RWVA. These events teach safe handling of firearms, markmanship and history in a very non-threatening environment.

 

[jblomenberg16]

There was a good suggestion above about inviting her to shoot. A .22 is a good start as its bark is far worse than its bite and won't have her nursing a sore hand or shoulder afterwards.

Another good idea is taking her to some professional training. I'm not talking a $500 Magpul class, but rather a gun safety / basic marksmanship class.

That was the trick for my wife. Once she realized the importance of good firearm handling and safety, she felt more comfortable with them in the house. She also saw the need for herself to be better trained and prepared to use one if she needed to defend herself or our daughter when I'm not home.


It probably won't happen overnight, but after a few positive experiences she'll start feeling more and more comfortable with them.

 

[88GT]

I would think the first thing would be to take her out just to plink with a 22 cal take it very slod make it fun and a little competive with friendly wagers. Make sure she wins then after a couple times move to a little larger cal but be sure it is fun for her and don,t force things at all.Good luck and be sure you teach her saftey first and formost be safe

Probably the best advice, particularly for her very first encounter.

I don't particularly hold to formal training as necessary since historically it wasn't the most common means of firearms education and generations of people learned to shoot safely without. It's nice to have to add to the portfolio of experience, but some people, women in particular, seem to eschew it for whatever reason.

 

[Merrixs]

Thanks mom for caring enough to ask about this. I think the family talks we had last weekend helped. For a little background, and to add a little more to the conversation, my wife shot her first pistol about 2 or 3 years ago. It was a .22 semi auto pistol and she only shot 2 or 3 clips full. She seemed fairly confident with it. She also shot a round or two out of a Glock that had a grip that was way to big for her and didn't like it. She had not shot anything else besides an air soft pistol until last thanksgiving. She shot a .223 AR and a Taurus PT111 that we now own. She was a little intimidated my a 9mm, but she wanted to shoot it because we were thinking about buying it from her sister, and she wanted to have a gun to protect her self. This past weekend was only the second time that she has shot the Taurus. I have taught her how to be safe with the gun and she has caught on quick. I am also teaching her how the gun works and why it works. She is very patient with me and I with her as well. Every so often I will get the gun out and just have her insert the clip, load it, eject the clip, and unload it just so it becomes second nature. Her, my mom, and my sister are looking into a safety class. I am currently trying to teach her how to aim consistently, not a big fan of the dot over dot sights and neither is she. I will be looking for some low light sights anyway. I am also trying to stop the bad habits in her form and execution before they become an issue. I do think she is warming up to the gun, it is just going to take some time and at her own pace. More comments and tips are welcomed. I just wanted to add some more background. Thanks

 

[gage]

Merrixs, sounds like you're doing great showing her the ropes and reps for patience and getting involved.
Your interest and investment is encouraging her to improve her skills and will likely be key to finding what
works for her plus you are adding life long good memories.
Keep up the greatness.

 

[driver4562]

I would think the first thing would be to take her out just to plink with a 22 cal take it very slod make it fun and a little competive with friendly wagers. Make sure she wins then after a couple times move to a little larger cal but be sure it is fun for her and don,t force things at all.Good luck and be sure you teach her saftey first and formost be safe

I agree - I did this with my Future Wife. started her off slow with a 22 rugger mark 1. she loved it and eventually after a few trips to the range we have gotten her up to shooting a 1911 caspian Arms 45ACP - loves to shoot it. The only problem is that ammo is so expensive for it! So enjoy while she is shooting the realities cheap 22's. also might recommend using a riffle at first instead of a hand gun... or 22 revolver.

 

[benweger]

I totally agree with the .22 introduction. My wife got a lot out of the Utah Carry class put on by Dignitary Protection Group, LLC | Executive Protection | Protective Services | Bodyguard | Threat Assessment | Investigations | Protective Intelligence | Security Consulting | Training She feels much better about carrying now. She carries a S&W Model 637 now.

 

[abnk]

Have women shooters take her to the range without male pressure.

 

[revance]

My wife used to be 100% ANTI-GUN. Now she is about as PRO-GUN as one can be.

I started out by just taking opportunities to point out how gun laws only disarm the law abiding. News stories about crimes against defenseless people are great to point out that things COULD have been different, and nothing is going to stop that from happening to us. I didn't do it in an annoying way, but slowly she started to slip up in her beliefs and started making similar comments about the news. Just be sure you don't do it in a nagging way... anyone who is even remotely logical can't ignore those arguments.

Eventually my wife (with a little help from me) decided she should take a class so she would at least know how to safely handle the guns. I signed her up for the ladies only "Intro to Defensive Pistol" at the Boone Co. Sheriff's office. I simply didn't offer up the information that there are NRA safety courses, I wanted her to take a class about using firearms for defense... not just shooting targets.

Lets just say that when she came home from the first day othe class, she spent that night researching GunSite classes.

 

[Rayne]

UPDATE: We've read all your suggestions so far and appreciate them. We've decided that the girls are going to a handgun safety/training class. We're going to make it just us three girls. Daughter and Daughter-n-Law along with myself. I think it will be a good bonding experience for us all. The men in my family have done a good job, don't misunderstand me. We just all agreed it would be something fun and good for us girls to go do by ourselves. So now we're looking for a training facility that has a course for just girls, either in far NWI or the Indy area. We could also go in South Central Indiana too as a third choice. Let me know if you've ever attended a girls only class, or if you know of one being held. Thanks

 

[slottech]

That sound like a super plan. I've been working with my wife to be more comfortable aroun d guns. I bought her a Mosquito about a year ago & she loves it for plinking at the outdoor range. So far so good. Long way to go though. Again, good plan and have fun, stay safe!

 

[SerasVictoria]

I'd advise to get her more comfortable with a gun start off with her shooting a 22

 

[Merrixs]

Time for an update.

My wife has come a long way these last couple months. She is very comfortable with handling her PT111 now.
I put some silver paint on the upper parts of the rear sight, and that has helped her aiming a lot.
The other thing that helped her aiming and her confidence was having her shoot at a bigger target for a while. Growing up on the farm, I would shoot at small things like cans, never large targets like you find at a range. Part of her discouragement was she could never see where the bullet was going when it didn't hit the can.
We ended up going to an indoor range and I placed a large 5-bullseye target at about 5 yards. We loaded her mags with 5 rounds; hoping to giver her more time in between groups to think about what’s happening, practice with loading clips and the gun, and to give her wrists a little breather. She did awesome, and burned threw all of the ammo we brought before I knew it.
Seeing were the impact was compared to how she was looking down the sights, and how nice her groups actually were, was such a confidence booster that we got a fresh target and 5 final rounds from a shooting buddy just so she could put those five rounds in a 3" group centered on the bullseye. We are proudly displaying that last target on the wall in our home.

She has not gotten to the point yet of carrying on her person, but she will take it with her. We purchased one of those security boxes for vehicles that has the cable coming out of it, and she took her gun, locked and loaded in that box, when she, our little girl, her mom, and cousin went on a girls trip a couple hours away. She also takes it with her whenever she and our little girl go to stay with her parents when I am out of town for work.
I think she has progressed nicely, and I can only hope that when her and my mom comes back from HandK's training that she will be even more confident. Sorry for bringing back an older post, thought some of you would enjoy the update.

 

[Coach]

My daughter-n-law is a petite little thing, who doesn't mind my son having guns, but he wants her to be comfortable enough to handle one herself. He has started working out of town more and wants her to be able to defend herself and their baby if trouble should come knocking at the door while he's gone.
Any suggestions on how to get her interested in handling & shooting, so she can be prepared?

Bring her to MCFG and take my BP100 course on Saturday May 28th. We will put a .22 in her hands and then a variety of 9mm. More information in the tactics and traing forum. She will not be the only lady there. Email me if interested and I will forward the registration forms. Someone should take it with her. This class is designed for people like her. If there is a chance of her becoming a shooter this training session will push her that way.