My wife wants a light weight compact handgun to carry with her.. What would you suggest..

Some of the ones she's looking at is the
Charter Arms Pink Lady Series .38 special
Ruger LCP .380 Distributor Exclusive
Ruger LCR .38 Special Pink Revolver Limited Edition

She's not very experienced with guns but is willing to practice. She would rather have a .22 but she doesn't think it will get the job done if she was attacked. Everyone says that it will just piss them off and she may get hurt anyway...

I would suggest you let her decide for herself. Let her shoot a few (rentals) and decide which she likes best. If you don't have the option of renting, let her get the one that feels the best in her hands.

Take her to a range and rent the guns. I'll bet after a few rounds the LCR won't be on the considered list. The LCP is a great pocket pistol. My wife carries one. Not everyone will like it though.

My wife and I both carry an LCP. They are very concealable. The only complaint I have is recoil can be rough on your hands after a while.

Also, I polished the feed ramp on both our guns to make feeding a little more smooth. Hers had issues feeding right out of the box due to tooling marks on the ramp. I didnt want to wait the 500 round break in or whatever they suggest, so I did a quick polish job and it works great.

You may hear complaints about accuracy as well, but I shot a perfect score at my CHL class with it.

I just ordered me a KAHR P380 for pocket carry.
S&W Shield IWB or OWB carry at times. Shield is lighter than the Bersa 380.

I have a taurus tcp that I carry.

just got a tcp in 380 but they are also available in .32 caliber. they are small light weight . I have not shot it but it will be my carry gun. It is about the same size as my Jennings J22 which is a small 22 lr gun.If she is a small lady then a .32 may be the answer. They are hard to get right now like everything else.

How's the kick for them for a woman?
She wants to be able to practice shooting the gun, but I don't want her to not want to practice because it scares her to shoot it...
She watched some youtube videos of the LCP and I think she started getting a little scared because some of those women were reacting to the recoil.

I don't know of a place to rent around here, I'll ask some buddy's and see if they know of any where I can take her to see what she likes!

The smaller they are and the lighter they are, the more recoil will be felt and noticed.
The Bersa is a 20oz gun in 380 so it is heavier than a Beretta NANO, S&W Shield or a Ruger LC9.

Check out the Taurus 605 5 shot 38/357. Used to have one that it was tiny ... then some punk broke into my car. Still miss that weapon.

where do you live?

+1 for the Ruger LCP. I got my wife one and she loves it. She is a real estate agent and the LCP is great for deep conceal. I also got her a Sneaky Peat Holster which looks like a "bigger" iPhone case.

firstshot

The best thing to do is to let her try a number of different guns until she finds one she likes and can shoot comfortably. Anything that doesn't match those criteria is unlikely to get carried as much as it should, if at all.

Best advice is what's been said. It's your wife's gun so let her choose. How would you like it if she chose your gun for you? Rent the guns and let her decide.

She's decided she only wants a .22... Looks like we're getting the Taurus PT-22... and of course Academy carries it with Pink handles so that's the one we're getting!

I think they had some feeding issues back when. Do some research before jumping on it.

run cci mini-mags or stingers +p ammo, round nose, no hollow points. pull the slide lots, keep it clean and oiled. it will be a good gun after you break it in. my brothers girlfriend likes hers stainless and wood grips

sig p238

I always thought a judge would be perfect for a female

LCR is one good gun

They did. I've got the Beretta M21. Yes, it's more money then the Taurus, but it runs like a champ.

Be careful you don't fall into the groove of "it looks good in my
hands" and get something that will do the job that she can fire accurately..I just gave a lady and her boyfriend shooting lessons
this past weekend w/a 308 AR10 and a Kimber Stainless 45 ACP..she
shot better than the guy, although flinched some..due to old memorys from her father having her shoot a SS 12ga that kicked her down as a child..Strange how many think things like that are
funny..Anyway, don't downgrade just because of her sex..DD

IMO ... Do not under estimate the 22 LR

I wouldn't want to get shot with one, but still. Heck, I've been shot with a BB gun and it kinda smarted. But I still would NEVER permit my wife to carry a .22 for defense. The .32s and .380s are questionable enough...

If she doesn't have much experiance with guns get her a .38spc. or .357mag revolver. take her to the gunstore and let her choose it. Just my opinion.