I used to be "terrified" of guns myself. I really don't know why except I just never grew up around them. We were never told guns were evil and bad and in fact I have fond memories of childhood games played with cap guns my parents bought us.
I got into shooting because of my hubby. Several years ago he decided to get a gun (he was from Canada and had gotten out of shooting becasue of the BS folk have to go thru). Needless to say I was not terribly happy and cried all the way home from the shop with the .22 pistol in my lap. I didn't want anything to do with it.
Fast forward a bit and when hubby picked me up from work, I told him he needed to take me out shooting. I had had a very bad day and did not want to break ANOTHER keyboard getting my frustrations out playing Quake and Hexon. So he grabbed what we needed, we went out to a friends place and he showed me what I needed to know and a new shooter was born
I took to it like a duck to water.
Fast forward a bit more and we went to a first of the year fun shoot, him with his new 9mm semi-auto and my .22 pistol. I was the only woman there and extremely intimidated surrounded by all those guys. The targets weren't set up for my .22, but I was only there to practice with it and make noise. I was finally convinced to try shooting with hubby's pistol and we traded off. Imagine my surprise when I turned from shooting the bowling pins off the table to find all the guys cheering and clapping my results. I was the only one who actually cleared the table (tho I had problems with the pistol as I still wasn't used to it and the RO had to help me out hehehehe). There was a gentleman at that shoot who had showed up in full cowboy regalia and was shooting six guns. I thought it was really cool.
Fast forward a bit more (there is a point and an end to this story
) and hubby had been hanging out at our local gun pusher's who had a six gun in stock. Hubby spent the better part of the afternoon learning how to hold it (he is a semi-auto guy) and brought it home for me to check out. I picked it up and held it properly right off the bat. We took it out and gave it a try and oooooo did I love shooting it. He picked me up a Rugar Blackhawk in .38/.357 and I started practicing with it. We discovered there was a cowboy action shooting group in the area and we went to one of their shoots.
I dug out some clothes that kinda looked cowgirl, we found a hat at a yard sale and hubby made me a holster (I was just going to use a nylon one since this was a try out, but he wasn't having none of that
). We showed up at the shoot, they paired me up with an experienced shooter and when they found out I only had the pistol, did a whip 'round and got me the rest of the gear I needed (2nd pistol, shotgun and rifle and the ammo to shoot it all). I had a grand old time and been shooting when I am able ever since.
The point of the story, you might want to take your GF to various shoots so she can just watch them. Esp check out any cowboy shoots as there is a fair number of women there so it won't feel quite so much like "testoserone central", which is how I first felt at that fun shoot, not to mention the dressup part of CAS makes it even more fun. Find places where she can try out different types of guns. My preference is single action, tho semi-autos are fun (and I love when I get a chance to play with machine guns
BWAHAHAHAHAH). Once she gets a chance to try different ones and more often, she may be less terrified of them.
