I'm going to be somewhat off-topic about convincing your wife that a Glock is safe to carry, but I wanted to respond to the issue about one mechanism being superior to another for carry applications.
In all fairness, we're just talking about different weapons systems here. For any given individual, one system may have merit over others. And for somebody else, it doesn't.
Many defensive handgun instructors will reinforce that you should be comfortable enough with all common handgun systems so that you can, under stress, use any of them effectively. One interesting stoppage drill we did last Saturday night in Farnam's course: We all removed our pistols plus one extra mag, and placed them on a table about 15 yards uprange of steel spinners. Using at least one dummy round per gun, the instructors arranged the guns on the table in various states, from ready-to-run but with a dummy round coming up, to dummy in the chamber, to a double-feed situation. No gun had more than three live rounds in the on-board magazine, and we had to fire--and hit--with four rounds from each gun, as quickly as we could, moving laterally any time we weren't actually pulling the trigger (meaning stoppage reduction and reloads had to be done on the move). The rest of the classed "watched"; the lack of light probably prevented more laughing than otherwise might have been.
It was about 7:00 p.m. and dark on the outdoor range; no lighting; no moon, only stars. I literally couldn't tell by sight what type of gun I was picking up unless the overall shape was distinctive enough. Glocks, SIGs, XDs, 1911s; I believe that's all we had in the class of eight people (not counting our BUGs, which weren't used in the drill but varied from my dinky Seecamp to another's S&W snubby .38). By touch, you had to decide if the lever on the pistol was a Browning-style safety or DA/SA decocking lever. You had to feel for the mag release lever since a mag change was required on each pistol, and if the stoppage was a double-feed, you had to feel for the slide lock.
Very educational little drill. It reinforced that commonly-used autoloaders are more similar than different, but you'd better be familiar enough with all of them not to fumble your gun handling at the time it's needed most. (What was really impressive was watching Gregg Garrett, of Comp-tac holsters, demonstrate the drill: you would have sworn he had bionic eyes; Gregg ran the table and got good hits on target faster in almost total darkness than any of the rest of us--including two SWAT officers--could do on a bright, sunny afternoon.
)
Bottom line, though, is that if you don't train and practice, you're very likely going to be in trouble in a defensive emergency regardless of the pistol you carry. If you don't train, you won't instinctively know your trigger's pull characteristics and reset length. The result with a DA/SA or auto-decocker (like the striker fired Glock's and XDs) will probably be hammering the trigger and pulling the first shot low left. If it's a 1911 and you don't train regularly with it, you won't instinctively have your thumb on the safety as the gun is presented. Either scenario can cost you big-time.
From a defensive perspective, I don't think any system is clearly superior. If your master grip on a 1911 is correct as the gun comes out of the holster, your thumb presses down all of about 3/8" to release the safety, and then you typically have a light, crisp trigger break and short reset. If you use a factory stock Glock or XD or M&P, your master grip doesn't have to involve a safety, but you have a longer, typically heavier and mushier trigger break and reset. If you use a DA/SA, you're going to have an even longer and heavier trigger break on the first shot, and long-and-heavy on all shots if you have a DA-only.
For me, individually, at about 10 yards and farther, I'm faster with my 1911s than with anything else. That's because the time to present the guns is essentially the same, but I'm faster hitting the target with the short, clean trigger of the 1911. With my Glocks and XDs, I have to take a fraction of a second longer to assure good trigger control. I've never timed up close and personal (sub 3 yards) live fire, but I'd have to believe my Glocks and 1911s would show no real speed difference.
YMMV.
From a safety standpoint, though, I'm comfortable carrying almost any modern, quality handgun (the qualifier is in there just to eliminate "Saturday night special" junk guns like Bryco, Jimenez, or Raven
).
Thanks again for the help in the Farnam class, without you there to calm me down and supply me with 180 gr. I don't know that I would have made it through testing! I had a blast working with you Skip, thanks man.