So, a bit of background: my mom is pretty scared of guns. She isn't a rabid anti or anything, she doesn't think they're "evil," she just feels nervous when they're around. For example, I brought my guns over to her house after a trip to the range so I could clean them before dinner, and she took one nervous look at the black box and told me to clean them out back (she doesn't like having them in the house!). She knows I'm responsible/safe with them, but she has no experience with guns... it's like she thinks they're just going to "go off" on their own and hurt someone. My parents divorced when I was young and shooting was something I did with my dad and his side of the family, so she has almost no exposure.
My goal is to get her to understand that guns aren't scary, but are a practical and necessary tool for citizens to protect themselves. There has been a vehicle break-in, and a vehicle stolen from her property in the last year. Her house has been burglarized 2 times in the 20 years she's lived there, and thank God she was at work, but I would feel much better about her being home alone if she knew how to safely operate a shotgun/handgun and had one readily available.
I've been planting little seeds, like "asking for her legal opinion" (she's an attorney) about
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Rock_v._Gonzales and several other cases showing the police don't have the obligation to protect citizens. I'm hoping some of you moms and daughters can give me an idea what route to take here... part of me thinks I need to just get her into the car and take her to the range, to get that initial "fear of the unknown" thing out of the way. Another part of me thinks I need to sit down and have a long talk with her before doing so.
I'm working against years of FUD spread in the media here... how do all the lovely ladies of Calguns think I should proceed? I don't want to "jump the gun." <---sorry for that, couldn't resist