After Hurricane Katrina, a relative wanted a small revolver with a laser, so I installed Crimson Trace laser grips on a no-dash S&W 640 and had it shipped to her. She took a CCW course and had to use both index fingers to pull the trigger, and the gun probably is sitting a box somewhere with the action gunked up and non-functioning, having never been handled or cleaned since the CCW class. If it was functional, she would not survive an encounter against an amateur criminal.
I have a friend who wanted to go shooting earlier this year. She had not been shooting since she got her CCW permit three years prior. She did OK, but was slow, with her dad’s vintage Model 19 shooting .38 Specials, but she would not shoot more than 2 cylinders’ worth of target ammo out of her airweight J frame .38 Special. I handed her my Glock 43, and she shot it faster, and more accurately, strong hand only and weak hand only, than she did with her revolvers using two hands. She wanted to run out and buy one. The only reason I did not recommend that was that she had some difficulty working the slide to load it.
People talk about spending the money on ammo rather than a new gun, but most people will never shoot enough ammo out of airweight J frames to have any impact on even a limited budget. They just suck for all but the most committed or lucky.
