I am very hesitant about any form of off-body carry, but purse carry is especially bad. The most likely criminal situation you will find yourself in outside of your home is a simple mugging. If you're a woman, the criminal is after your purse. If your gun is in the purse, what do you do? You have no good option. That said, it is the only way some women will carry. Weigh the risks, but I'd try to talk her into a better option.
Well said.
I'm also highly concerned about two other things here.
Carrying a pistol to "feel safer" is often done without any intention of learning awareness and general self-defense. If someone is looking for a "feel good" self defense item, pepper spray is a lot better option.
Wielding deadly force requires a different mindset and serious decisions made long before a firearm is needed or utilized.
Many people don't decide a couple of things: They don't decide if they're committed to a course of action that may result in their imprisonment for life if they make a poor decision. And they don't think hard about what it may mean to take a shot that could take a life. It's serious business.
Secondarily, having talked with a significant number of female carriers, I've asked how many purse carry in a proper holster style purse and it's high. Very popular. Next question I ask is how many have found a range and instructor who will train to draw from such a carry configuration and almost none have even tried, let alone done it.
One surprised me and said she had found an instructor and range that would allow it, and trained to present a weapon from a concealed carry purse. She said it was very difficult and had to be done a very specific way to avoid muzzling (pointing the weapon at) herself, or the instructor, and making for a very unsafe draw. She recommended training to simply reach inside, aim the purse, and shoot through it in such a scenario. Which she said they did not train, since it would get very expensive very quickly. She suggested her instructor get a few of these style purses and blow some holes in them and use them for such training.
He was thinking about it as he has a significant number of female students. He was concerned that as an instructor there's not much one can see when training someone that way and a dangerous situation may not be able to be seen and corrected.
She also said in order to do that reliably, a revolver would be the appropriate pistol type for that type of engagement since a semi-auto would almost guaranteed be taken out of action in the first shot via interference with the slide. A derringer style would also usually work but be very limited in number of rounds available. Usually two. Even those options are poor with exposed hammers. They can catch on something and cause a failure to fire or worse become unhung at the wrong time and go forward the rest of the way to fire the pistol when the purse had been turned during a struggle.
Just a whole lot of "possibly bad".
She said she started carrying on-body except when absolutely necessary to use off body carry, after that real world range experience. She had convinced herself that the clothing differences and modification of wardrobe would be "ugly", "baggy" etc and then researched it and found there were plenty of ways to do it "fashionably".
Guys do have an advantage in this regard in that we typically wear pants and belts and they lend to proper holster use easier than some types of popular women's clothing. But there are options and they do nowadays get good coverage in places like YouTube and the aforementioned Cornered Cat website amongst others.
It's often helpful for women to talk with other women about these options. Many ranges run "Ladies Nights" with discounts on everything from rentals and range time, to gear, and even firearms. Worth looking into.
I think also it's worth training with self defense trainers without firearms.
Here's a way to demonstrate how useless pistol carry in a purse likely will be to her. Walk up to her from behind and tap her on the shoulder and hold your fingers in the shape of a gun. Ask what she'd do with a holstered pistol in a purse at that point. (It's a bad enough scenario to be outdrawn and surprised if the pistol is on your body in a solid strong side holster. You're going to need a lot of distraction and time to even draw against an already drawn pistol. In a purse it's likely impossible or even asking to be shot to attempt to deploy it.)
Anyway... Boring I know. But thoughts I felt needed to be passed along. Most self defense scenarios happen at point blank range and quickly. Bad guys don't usually announce from 10 yards away that they're going to jump someone and then walk in a straight line facing you to come do you harm.
