You will probably not be able to operate the slide on an auto. My wife can't due to arthritis. You will need a revolver. If money is no object, a LadySmith is a beautiful gun. Avoid single action revolvers however. You have to use your thumbs to cock them. Go double action or hammerless.
That is true on a lot of double action autos, but things like the Browning High Power, 1911, or Springfield XD have much lighter slide efforts because they are single action.
You can rack the slide on one of those by gripping the serrations on the slide with three fingers opposing the palm and do just fine.
Come to think of it, you can rack the slide on a Browning High Power with one finger and the other hand on the grip.
Thank you. I think I am going to need to go somewhere that there are a lot of handguns to try My local gun store only has a few.
I was going to say the same thing. If you have no thumb grip, there is no way you're going to be able to pull the slide back on a Glock or other semi-automatic pistol. You need to look at a revolver, but I would stay away from the S&W Airweight or Airlite models. (Not sure if the Ladysmith is an airweight model or not.) People recommend them to women all the time, but they have a kick like a mule. I tried the S&W .38 and when I was done shooting 50 rounds, the back of my hand was so swollen I could hardly grip my car keys afterwards. I had severed a tendon on the back of my hand years ago, and I guess the recoil was too much for the scar tissue on my hand.
Later, I was taking a beginner handgun class and our instructor, a woman, held up the same model revolver I had been shooting and told us to avoid the gun. "I will not shoot this gun," she told us. She also said she has women show up all the time with the Ladysmith that some well-meaning husband or boyfriend had purchased, and that they usually had trouble with it. It's too lightweight for the kick it gives you. She actually recommended the .357 revolver over the Ladysmith.
Just my 2 cents worth... since I recently went through the first time purchase process.
“You will probably not be able to operate the slide on an auto. My wife can’t due to arthritis. “
You don’t need to use your thumbs at all to operate a slide. If you are right handed, you put the tips of your left hand fingers on the right side of the slide and the base of the palm on the left side of the slide. Grip the slide tightly this way and then push your right hand forward and the slide will easily move back and cock the gun. It is much better than using your thumb and index finger and it takes little strength.