Suggest a smaller weapon to wound but not kill

[Bigfoot62]

Mom, with extremely little gun experience, wants a weapon to guard against home intruders.

She's got my old .22 rifle right now, & we've shot it, loaded it, un-loaded, etc. but even that's dicey. I don't trust her with it, & it's probably too big for her to swing around & hit something in an emergency anyway.

How about something smaller (pistol sized?) that shoots something other bullets, that will injure but not kill somebody/ something (coyotes, etc). She's not convinced mace will do what might be needed.

In reality, if I could get .22 blanks that would probably work: She's prob never really gonna need it anyway, & may not even realize a bullet wasn't actually shot, if she ever even does fire at anything!

Nevertheless, shooting rice or something like that might be best ... Any ideas?

A "weapon to guard against intruders."
If she wants a gun, then she needs to take a concealed carry class and see what it's all about, learn how to properly use it, etc, from a certified instructor that does this on a regular basis. Most of the instructors that I know are either police officers or military personnel. (active or retired) They work with folks like her all the time. She will be more receptive to their instruction than yours. (not an insult - you're always going to be her little boy) And, any good instructor will teach her that you shoot to STOP the threat, not wound, not scare, not even kill, but to STOP.

After the class, if she decides to procede with a gun, fine. If not, then I would suggest that she get familiar with using pepper spray. Buy more than one and practice. Kimber makes a very useful one: Kimber America | Pepperblaster | The most powerful pepper defense system

JMHO

 

[Pilot]

How old is she? How "with it" is she?

If like my mother in law when she was in her late 80's, it would be dangerous for her to have a weapon. She would have imagined someone who was coming to help was a thug and fired. And when she hurt her back and was in pain for a long time she went nuts--the doc said pain in old people can mess up their minds.

Seems to me if she got a weapon, she would need careful monitoring to insure she won't be dangerous as she got older.

There's an email rumor that a can of hornet spray will temporarily blind a thug. The label just says eye irritation. I didn't test it.