But by no means should anyone ever hand someone who lacks any, or even only has limited experience handling firearms, regardless of what it's chambered in, a loaded gun and says go ahead, just pull the trigger. That's just a tragic accident waiting to happen.
Funny enough, this is how my first shooting experience was. My buddy went over the four safety rules first, handed me his Super Redhawk .44 so I could see it, then loaded it up with full bore loads and handed it to me, and said "Hang on to it." I'm blessed enough to be 6'3" and 195 lbs though, so while I did need to hold on, it wasn't like these poor tiney gals who end up getting hurt. I also didn't realize that he was being a crack dealer that day...... The first one is free, but then your hooked for life, and you have to pay for future fixes.
They are your guns and that's your right, but isn't that taking it too far? I would think showing them how to shoot (and single loading/starting with light loads) would be OK. I have seen women, women who couldn't have weighed 125lbs, shooting full load .460s&w without any problem.
Absolutely true. Women can shoot magnum large bore revolvers as well as any man, so long as their hands are large enough and strong enough to grip the gun. But the rest of it is technique, not physical size or strength. If you needed to be a hulk to shoot them, they would be very poorly designed guns indeed. Though, being large and strong does certainly make it easier to keep the gun on target, and to deal with the recoil. Same principle as shooting the same cartridge/load out of different weight guns or guns with different barrel lengths. More mass behind the gun = better recoil absorbing potential.
My close friend, a long time military man as well, was climbing up the side of a wash close behind me.
I find this interesting. I used to shoot with two former military guys. One of them is a very proficient handgunner and shooter in general. He is safe, he knows what he is doing, and we can talk endlessly about firearms in general.
The other is the most unsafe shooter I've ever seen. He had shoulder surgery, and decides he wants to shoot his Mossberg 500 a week afterwards. He couldn't work the pump with his bad shoulder. So what does he proceed to do? He wedges it in his groin to get the leverage he needs to chamber shells. Then he asks me if I want to shoot it. I said sure, expecting he'd let me load it and take over since he was stoved up. He proceeds to load it one handed on the tailgate of his truck, with it pointed in the general direction of, though maybe 20 or 30 degrees off from, where other shooters are standing. Granted, it wasnt chambered, but I still pointed it out. Then he chambers a round again by wedging it against his groin, and hands it to me with the safety off. I don't shoot with him much anymore since I got sick of watching him like a hawk.
I bring him up because he was shooting my 460 the first time, and he happens to be really small. I saw him bring the gun in real close to his face so it was like looking through an open rifle sight I guess. I yell and wave my arms. "Hey! That thing will knock you cold if you pull the trigger right now! Hold it out like normal!" I think his shoulder was making the X frame too heavy to hold out at arm's length. Then he fired, and understood exactly why I made a big deal out of it.