My wife is a very independent woman, and we've been married for almost 40 years now...so my "letting" her do something largely depends on her wanting to do it anyway. When it comes to guns, though, she generally defers to my expertise (I have her fooled) BUT (and I do emphasize the BUT) she still makes the final decision as to what she wants for herself. Despite my earnest attempts to dissuade her, she is fairly well convinced that she wants one of the new Kimber subcompacts. She hasn't made a final decision yet...so I hope I can still convince her to get a good gun instead.