A buddy of mine came to me a few days ago asking for help getting started with firearms. He’s shot a little bit, his wife hasn’t shot anything. Apparently wife’s friend took some sort of introduction to firearms course and had a great experience, relayed that to wife, now wife is interested, so husband/buddy came to me for some guidance on how to get started.

Since we don’t live in the same state I did the best I could to offer some generic guidance towards finding a worthwhile instructor: questions to ask, the sorts of things to look for, etc..  And I hate to say it, but since his wife was involved my gut feeling was for them to seek out a female instructor. Why? I didn’t want them to risk getting the “Here lil’ lady, let me help you with that” sort of mentality. Or saying that “Oh for you, Hon, you want a little snub-nosed J-frame .38… but Hubby he can have a big-ass 1911 .45” sort of bullshit.

Here’s a fantastic write up on this very problem.  Caleb offers his comments on the write-up, as does Tam. TXGunGeek posted on this same topic just a little while ago.