Suggestions Welcome

I just sent this e-mail to James.


James,
I know you've spent years helping the financially strapped and elderly with training using handguns. I was wondering if you have a suggestion as to which type and cartridge we should try for the Boss.

Several years ago arthritis attacked her laft hand to the point of required surgery. A small bone in her left wrist was removed where the long bone from the thumb is attached. To keep the end of the now detatched thumb bone in place, tendons were used to attach it to other bones in her hand. The result is a very weak grip, without the hand strength to rack the slide of any semi-auto handgun. That was her left hand. She's right handed.

A few months ago she had the same surgery on her right hand, and now she wants to get trained for concealed carry. The right hand seems to be fairly well healed and we'll be trying a 22 revolver in the next couple of weeks to see how it feels. If that works out OK, we'll be moving on to something higher in power.

Have you had any experience with training someone that's had this surgery, or something that weakens the thumb connection? I'm looking for suggestions as to how to proceed and the type of weapon we might try.

Thanks.
Trajectory

Always open to suggestions.
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Here's what James had to say.

Thank you kindly for taking the time to write. I'll try my best.

Like you, I think it is important to first make sure that she isn't feeling undue pain while using a handgun. It is unfortunate, but if it is too uncomfortable then she might be forced to forgo arming herself altogether.

If the option for armed self defense is still open, then I agree that a revolver might be her best bet. This hinges on her arthritis allowing her to handle something as small as individual cartridges during a reload, though. If she can reload using single rounds, or with a speedloader, then that is probably the way to go.

My first elderly student suffered from an advanced case of arthritis and reduced hand mobility. We discovered that there are still a few autoloader choices that can be tracked down which might be suitable for someone in your wife's position.

Please note that this is just something on the table, and it isn't something I'm actually pushing over the revolver idea. Besides, it would be a pain to track one of those little Beretta's down since the company discontinued the line about 15 years ago.

Anyway, good luck! Let me know how everything turns out.

And yes folks, there are still very many good people in the world.