I wouldnt recommend .22 or .25. Those are too reliant on accurate shot placement under pressure, and women who're cool as a cucumber when facing surprise violence OR practicing enough are unicorns.
In general, the bang or presence of a gun is more important than the caliber. If she does have to fire, a 22 or 25 will have low recoil that will make follow up shots much easier, depending on her size. A 100 pound woman would have issues with followup shots, even with something mellow like a 380. I'm addition, a bobcat can be hidden literally anywhere. Women clothing and such may or may not permit a larger weapon without printing
If she does have to fire, a 22 or 25 will have low recoil that will make follow up shots much easier
The premise is flawed, and why I recommend everyone take some self-defense classes. Inside of 20', being able to draw and get off a shot at all is difficult, much less the precision required for .22 or .25 where it's facial triangle or the crime blotter. "Follow-up shots" are how gun manufacturers sell comically underpowered varmint rounds to women who're big hecking scared of handguns.
If you want an easy way to test this without springimg for a non-lethal training handgun, go get a laser pointer and a banana. Tell your buddy to rush you sometime that day and try to "stab" you with a banana before you can draw and laser pointer him in the face. After you get banana'd to death half a dozen times, you'll stop screwing around with squirrel rounds and get a caliber where even a poorly aimed JHP to the spleen will put an assailant down.
self defense classes
Classes and training aren't possible if she's afraid to fire the weapon, or can't handle it comfortably.
Again: my first choice for a woman is something in 380. But I think you're too quick to discount 22/25/32. If it's what works for someone, it's better than trying to fight them off with your bare hands. And if you can comfortably shoot off a few hundred rounds at the range of 22, as opposed to 50 rounds of something larger, guess which weapon they will be more proficient with when shit goes down
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