I have not taken gun training classes for many years, but I would guess they still stress that if you have not made the decision to shoot to kill in self defense, you may as well throw the gun away.
I have a few friends who I have advised NOT to get a gun, because they were not going to invest in training and had no other experience involving firearms.They just wanted one to "scare" an attacker.I think the training idea is a great idea.Some people,mostly women, just can't understand that once you take responcibility for your own self-defense the fear of attack is decreased.
Whether these women actually go on to own a gun or not, the intoduction to self-defense 101 will help them get over the victim mentality that allows abuse to continue.
That sounds exactly what they should be called. If you don't mind, I want to use that as much as I can.
Whether they stress it in the courses or not - and they should - it's still a very important part of the equation. That decision has to be made UP FRONT, not during a moment of crisis.