I'm late to this party but would like to give you a few suggestions. I've trained a couple hundred women over the last 24 years and trained all my girlfriends and wife. Several had to deploy their guns to save their butts.
If these ladies are really serious about CC and know nothing about guns, get them into a NRA Basic Pistol Couse and follow it up with a Personal Protection in the Home Course and maybe even the Personal Protection Outside the Home Course. These will give them the needed FOUNDATION that 99% of the shooters out there don't have.
As to guns, after taking the Basic Pistol Course they will have a better idea of what will work for them and then can take the two follow-up courses with their own guns. Some may like a semi-auto and some a revolver...there is no right answer for everyone, just the best answer for the individual... Your original reasoning however is spot-on...
I see a lot of comments about no one, especially new shooters, being able to hit anything with a snubbie... My belief is that they are not "practically practicing". Simply they put a pistol target out at 10-15 yards and blaze away at it...and they are then right, the snubbie is not right for that kind of target shooting. But if one is practicing for a defensive scenario a} why are they shooting at a bullseye target b} why is the target so far away if they haven't mastered the gun at 5 yards yet. Get a realistic human target, start at 3 yards and work out to 10...if you can keep all the shots in the kill zone then is the snubbie so hard to shoot...
Another not noted advantage of the revolver in regards to malfunctions is during a actual gunfight one may not be able to lockout real well. If one already lacks a lot of physical strength, limp wristing or an unlocked elbow will absorb enough of the slide inertia to cause a feeding malfunction...and the more "compact" that use even heavier springs the more it can happen. I had a female instructor who was the #1 womans bullseye shooter in the state who shot a compact 1911 .45. When she "practiced" there was never a problem, get into a blind scenario, the gun would short stoke quite often. She shot Modified Weaver, with a locked elbow...as soon as she would shoot with an unlocked elbow the gun would fail to cycle... Also many times women are in physical contact with an attacker. This again raises the possibility of a malfunction.
Practice for reality, not for fantasy.
Springs...magazine wise I have never replaced one. My two carry guns were made in 1952 and I use the original magazines...the springs are original. Unless a spring gets rusty or sustains physical damage it will continue to function just fine. Cycles not constant compression causes more wear to a spring.
Great that you are helping these ladies...
Bob
