Well noted guys. That's why (like I mentioned in the first post) we are enrolling in course.

I appreciate the concern. I re-read my first post and can see where you guys are coming from. But, like I said, we are both going to through a gun safety and defensive handgun course. The officer that conducts the training works with many who have never held or fired a gun.

While the gun safety rules are (generally) universal from hunting to home defense, I have never taken a real course to learn the skill on how to use a handgun defensively.

However, I've seen the damage that a .357 can do on an animal (I would use one to finish off coyotes). There's no way I'd just hand her a gun and say, "Allright, your safe now." While I'm not military, or law enforcment, I do hunt quite a bit and respect the firearms potentially devestating power.