I am looking for suggestions for a self defense handgun for my Mom. She lives alone and her house was burgled two years ago over Thanksgiving. Thankfully she wasn't home at the time. She showed some interest in getting a gun after the break in so I thought we would go shopping while I'm at home for the holidays. It would be primarily for home defense. I highly doubt she would be interested in carrying, but she lives in Ohio and could easily get a CCW if she wanted. She isn't experienced with firearms so something easy to operate and low recoil would be best.

I am still fairly new to owning hand guns(Only have experience with Glocks) and I am not sure what to suggest for her. I know racking the slide on a semi auto can be problematic for people with weak grip strength so I was thinking a revolver of some sort. However, I know squat about revolvers. What caliber would be good? Barrel length? Any revolver specific characteristics that would be problematic for weak/inexperienced shooters?

I am looking for a local range where she can try some things out hopefully. I am not sure yet if that will be an option though.