Great gun.
To add to my post, women’s needs many times — in spite of the “equality” thing — are very different. My wife is a good example of that.
She’s 5’3” and weighs 103 pounds. She had a very tough time racking the slides on my Glocks, and a hard time with the 14 pound trigger pull of the S&W .38 Airweight I bought her. Another problem with women is concealment. If they have a purse, that part’s easy, but like my wife, many wear close fitting garment like yoga pants and the like, which makes concealment on her person difficult.
While there’s nothing more reliable than a wheel-gun, I wanted to make sure she A. Had enough firepower and not be overwhelming and B. Could operate the gun effectively.
She first carried an M&P Bodyguard .380, but I didn’t like that size round for stopping anyone. To me, a .380 is a shoot-and-scoot gun. Stepping her up to a 9mm would put her in rack-trouble. So after a bit of waiting for the right solution, the M&P Shield 9mm EZ came out which solved many of her problems. It’s small, easy to use, and easy to conceal — in her purse at least. It only took a few trips to the range for her to become comfortable for the increased recoil. Now, she shoots many times better than me with a comparable Glock 19.