Lots of suggestions on Glocks, and they are hard to beet for dependability.
I dont like a gun with a light or laser, as I believe it provides a target.
Shoot at the light and hit whats behind it. Just my opinion.
Gun choice depends a lot on your skills or the skills of the other members of you household. A revolver is pretty simple, and most any one can learn to use, load and unload it.
I supplied my wife, and my elderly with S & W model 10's. My oldest daughter chose a Ruger LCR in 38 special. Good enough for America's Law enforcement for several decades, probably good enough for home defense now.
How the light is used matters.
Armed citizens should not be using a light to search in dark and scary places looking for bad guys. Call 911 instead. If someone is rooting around in your detached garage it’s a property crime and nothing you own is worth killing someone.
If it’s something else but isn’t an immediate threat call 911 and do whatever is prudent to protect you and your family. That will almost never be wandering in shining a light around and making yourself a target.
I don’t care how much you paid for a tacti-cool light on your weapon and how bad you want to use it. There really isn’t a good reason to insert your self into or create an imminent threat when one doesn’t already exist.
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A light brings something to the table when you are faced with what you perceive to be an imminent threat and need to confirm that threat immediately before shooting the threat if it exists.
For example you hear someone coming in an unlocked window or door in the middle of the night when everyone who should be home was home. You then hear them bumping into things suggesting they do not know the layout of the house. Before shooting you’ll want to confirm it’s not a kid coming home drunk, or perhaps a boyfriend sneaking in a pre arranged unlocked door to visit a daughter.
That’s best done with a brief flash of your weapon light to ID the potential threat as an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death - or not. You know your house, your eyes are night adapted and you don’t want to give any of that up wandering around with a light on. When you need to use it, use just a momentary flash of light to assess what you need to assess.
Also don’t get sucked into using too much light and blind yourself with light splashing back off white walls. Your night adapted eyes don’t need much light.
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The weapon light versus a hand held light is a thread unto itself with pros, cons and a whole set of training issues and techniques.
