TexasCHLforum.com

First thing to remember: all people are different, and what works for one spouse may completely backfire with yours. Case in point: my wife is as resistant as I am to someone trying to talk her into something. She's more likely to just shut the person up than to continue to listen - unless of course she initiates it or is already doing soul-searching on the subject herself. She had the same adverse reaction when I first mentioned buying a gun, and there was some heat. But over time (and we only ever talked about it when she brought it up) she was completely comfortable with having one in the house, even once telling me, as some here have noted, to take it with me when I investigated a noise downstairs.

Fast-forward a couple years to wanting a CHL - she was kinda resistant ("why do you need to carry it around?") at first, but not as strongly as she was earlier about just having one. Did the same kind of thing, didn't really discuss it unless she brought it up, and went ahead and scheduled a class on a Saturday, taking the Friday before off work so she could still have her "day off from the kids" while I was gone all day Saturday. She once asked me, in a neutral not accusatory tone, if I'd be carrying it everywhere we go. I kinda nonchalantly answered something like, "not necessarily" and "we'll just see how it goes" (thinking in my mind that the real answer is, "yes, unless I'm prevented from it"), and she seemed happy with that. Since getting my holster (tuckable IWB) late last week I started wearing the empty holster out and about (church twice over Easter weekend, lunches out, etc.) and wearing my Glock 30 in it around the house. She didn't notice, even when she had me untuck so she could take body mass index measurements (she's studying to be a personal trainer), and when I told her about it, she was impressed that she hadn't noticed and said it made sense to wear it around to get used to it. She did make one sarcastic crack about "just as long as you don't shoot me or the boys" (no offense meant or taken, you just have to know my wife and her personality), but we just smiled and went on our merry.

So my advice is to listen to her (and hear her when you do, inasmuch as it's possible for us males) and approach it in the way that seems best not to Paco the Gun Owner, but Paco the Husband, who knows Mrs. Paco better than anyone in the world. If she understands this:

locknload wrote:Just tell them that your wife and family are precious to you and are worth defending

then given time and care (and, which goes without saying, continued level-headedness) she'll accept and appreciate what you do in pursuit of that noble goal. That's what got me interested in the first place - never had a thought to buying one until I got married and realized that this wonderful woman's safety was my responsibility and something happening to her that I couldn't prevent scared me a lot more than something happening to me (and she knows that).

JT