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Either the Ruger MkIII or the 22/45 with a heavy barrel might be a heavy pistol, but it also means zero recoil. The advantage is that your son can work on the finer points of pistol marksmanship without developing a flinch in the process. I can't speak to the other pistols. I'm sure they are fine. I just know that I use my Ruger 22/45 routinely to teach beginning shooters how to shoot, and my students have liked it.

The one down side, and this goes for both the MkIII and the 22/45 is that, while takedown is easy, reassembly is an exercise in frustration and the use of foul language, which can lead to a trip to the ER for stitches (some of the machined angles are razor sharp), and a trip to a gunsmith to get it put back together. If you want to teach him how to field-strip, clean, and reassemble a semi-auto pistol, the Rugers are not a good learning platform.