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People like me - 77 years old and arthritic, cannot even BEGIN to rack a Glock barehanded due to the necessarily strong recoil springs. This is true of ALL striker-fired pistols, because the recoil springs have to cock the striker as well as return the slide to battery.

I can just barely rack hammer-fired guns like the 1911 or the various Walther clones. (I do own a Beretta 92.) My lady-friend (also 77) can’t even do that one.

Therefor my first choice for carry is a S&W Model 60, and the bedside gun is a 686.

I get soooo fed up with Glock arrogators who sneer at revolver shooters, given that THEIR choice of handguns have fairly light trigger pulls but don’t even have a safety, leaving them prone to all sorts of negligent discharge scenarios, including three-year-old who kill their mothers with one. DON’T tell me that silly little lever in the trigger is a safety! A SAFETY prevents the gun from firing even when the trigger is pulled.

Never mind the painful task of filling magazines. I don’t need a tool to load any of my revolvers.

My Beretta won’t feed certain bullet nose shapes. I’m sure this is true of Glocks and clones, too, whereas I can and do shoot any sort of ammo from my Smiths.

Not to mention that a revolver can shoot reduced loads, even the “cat-sneeze” variety, as well as shot loads for snake defense.

Give me a beautiful precision-made Smith or Colt. Even a piece of farm machinery marked Ruger beats a plastic semi-auto every time.

[/rant]

“People like me - 77 years old and arthritic, cannot even BEGIN to rack a Glock barehanded due to the necessarily strong recoil springs. This is true of ALL striker-fired pistols, because the recoil springs have to cock the striker as well as return the slide to battery.

I can just barely rack hammer-fired guns like the 1911 or the various Walther clones. (I do own a Beretta 92.) My lady-friend (also 77) can’t even do that one.”

I hear you, I’m almost there, too.
When I bought my youngest her college graduation gift (a handgun, of course), she wanted a semi-automatic but one that she could “handle.” That meant relatively low recoil, and one she was physically able to rack. She liked my Ruger Model I and Model II, but they were a bit too large for concealed carry, so we settled on the Beretta Tomcat. It’s 32 caliber, concealable, and has a pop-up barrel so that the first round can be inserted by hand into the chamber, avoiding having to rack it. Can do it in the dark, to boot, solely by feel. Then it’s SA or DA for the first shot, and SA thereafter for the rest of the magazine. It has checkered walnut handles, so it feels good in the hand and doesn’t slip any while shooting. They is a 22LR version, too, the Beretta Bobcat, and either is concealable and effective for self-defense for a woman.