This is from tacTissy, and it’s an excellent primer on how to select your first handgun — from a woman’s perspective.

(h/t TXGunGeek)

And while gender shouldn’t matter, it does. The main reason is because there’s still too much male-whatever that goes on in the gun world. Some of it is well-intended, because it’s a guy just trying to be chivalrous but unfortunately fails. Some is just asshole-ish (“hey babe, try shooting these 12 gauge 3″ magnum slugs while I video it”). And in my years of teaching at KR Training I’ve seen more than my fair share of women that have come to class with a gun given to them by their husband or boyfriend, which is just wrong for them. It’s a great gun for him, but horrible for her. We swap her a gun that is more suitable for her, and suddenly she smiles and everything improves.

It’s why I started doing a segment in the KR Training Basic Pistol 1 class comparing revolvers. Because all too often a woman will go into a gun shop, they will say “Little lady, you want one of these” and show her an airweight snub revolver. She buys it, shoots it once, it hurts like hell, and she never wants to shoot it again. What good did that do anyone? So I developed a segment where they shoot 1 round out of an airweight snub, then 1 round (same load) out of a large-frame revolver. Without fail everyone hates the snub and enjoys the large revolver. I don’t do it to hurt people, but to give them knowledge so they can say “hell no!” when the well-intended salesman tries to suggest the snub. It also demonstrates the realities of physics, that a larger, heavier gun is really going to make a better first choice because they are a lot more fun to shoot.

And while some things are certainly gender-based, most things aren’t. The size and strength of one’s hands play a large part in choosing the right gun, and size and strength of hands has little to do with gender. That is, it’s not “women need a small gun and men need a big one” but rather, the person needs a gun that fits their hands — smaller hands may need a smaller gun, larger hands may need a larger gun (note: gender didn’t enter into this).

What tacTissy talks about closely mirrors KR Training’s own guide to selecting your first handgun and what we teach in our classes. What I especially liked about her video was she relates the concepts of selection to… well… a woman’s world. I think her underwear analogy was awesome and spot-on.