[caveat emptor]

The first and only gun I ever bought for my wife was for protection at home while I was working graveyard shift and some of the local non-Amish bad guys (Berkeley/North Oakland 1961) were breaking into homes and raping in the middle of the night. It was a little Beretta 22 cal pocket pistol.

If I were doing it today it would be something like this 380:



Not great stopping power as things go these days, but it is small, easy to shoot, has laser sight, and should do plenty of of damage at close range, especially with hollow point ammo.

[sarge83]

Santa left me a ruger mkII .22 pistol. Cant wait to shoot it.

[ErnBatavia]

When Dad died, I took possession of his never-fired Bernardelli Model 80 .22 pistol. A few months ago, we took it out to give it a go, and it wouldn't "go"....damn; the receipt indicated he'd paid 200 zops for it.

...came home, read the manual, and found that it has a "double safety" on it, which I hadn't fathomed.

I guess my expertness from the mid 60's Marine Corps has faded away......double damn.

Anyhow - most of the Banglisters here will disagree, but a .22LR (Magnum better, of course) is a perfectly sufficient home defense tool.