.40 is far from "mild recoil" especially in the minds of a lot of females. Also there is no such thing as " knockdown power". A round isn't entirely effective unless you get a hit in the nervous system. You think a round of .40 will stop someone if you hit them in their arm and a 9mm won't? No... Chances are neither will do the job, you have to be proficient with your weapon and be able to make center of mass hits. It doesn't matter if your attacker bleeds out 15 minutes later on your front lawn..that's plenty of time for him to harm or kill you. A larger caliber will make a bigger hole, thus making it easier to hit the nervous system, but only of you are capable of shooting it accurately.
A lot if people think it's a great idea to run out and buy a woman a super small gun, hey they are smaller than guys it must be a good idea right? ... Um not usually. Smaller(lighter) guns have a greater felt recoil than larger (heavier) guns. Smaller guns such as subcompacts are often much "snappier" than their bigger counterparts. I prefer the recoil of my 45 over the 9 as it's more of a push to me and the 9 feels snappier. However the tradeoff is concealibility with the smaller guns so i generally carry my 9 rather than the 45( but I still carry the 45 occasionally).
The problem with .22s isn't only that it's a smaller round, but also that often they are quite unreliable with failures to fire, feed, etc.
There's a saying something along the lines of " a hit with a .22 is better than a hit with a .45"(insert your smaller/larger caliber if you wish). Simply put: if you aren't going to take the time to practice and be proficient with your weapon than a .45 or .50 will me no better than a .22 when you need to use it.
I would never replace a gun with a taser, but if your girlfriend won't take the time to prActice with a handgun then it's a better option for her if you can't convince her otherwise. News articles about house breakins, sexual assaults, and robberys can often sway minds.
My girlfriend doesn't enjoy shooting my shotgun whatsoever but I know If she had to use it she could handle it. Sometimes she even shoots my 45 better than I do, but again she doesn't enjoy the recoil on it or the 9mm( S&W M&P 9 compact). I haven't gotten her to shoot my Garand yet but one of these days she will... Once haha. She's got another couple months until she's old enough to carry concealed, but on her 21st bday we'll be at the courthouse getting her lisense to carry.
Another thing be sure to use expanding ammunition (hollowpoints) as they make a larger wound and don't overpenetratr as easily as FMJ does sometimes. Make sure the HPs feed reliably through your weapon as they sometimes catch on the feed ramp in some guns due to the open fAced design. You are responsible for every round that comes out of your weapon.. Wether it hits your target or not. "know your target AND what's behind it".
I know that's a long winded post on a year old topic but obviously there's still interest in the topic..
