Hi Marie. Welcome!
You husband doesn't need to like guns per se, but he does need to respect you and your choice to own and use them. If he tries to fordbid you form owning firearms, he is treating you like property rather than a human being, insulting your ability to comport yourself as a responsible adult, and denying you of a human right which many of our countrmen have bled and died to provide. I'm sure your husband is a decent and nonorable man, but perhaps he should rethink his position a bit.
So long as you store and handle your firearms responsibly there is no rational reason for him to be afraid of your firearms. A gun is simply a tool, no more or less dangerous than any countless otherpowerful tools we encounter in daily life. Automobiles, for instance, are far more powerful, far more dangerous, and statiscitcally speaking, far more likely to injure someone. The key with firearms, as with cars, is to learn how to use them safely and responsibly. Your willingness to obtain proper firearms training is an admirable first step, and it demonstrates that you're the type of person that can and will exercise be safe with your weapons.
Guns come in a wide range of sizes. The smaller and lighter a gun is, the easier it tends to be to keep close at hand so that it is avaiable for use should you ever need it. The downside of smaller and lighter guns is that they are almost always less effective for protecting yourself than larger firearms. Whe considering firearms for defense, keep this spectrum between copnvenience and effectiveness in mind.
The snub nose .357 revolvers of the type you mentioned falls at the extremely small/convenient end of this spectrum. It's prime advantage is that it would be fairly easy for you to conceal this gun on your person and carry it with you ever day. For example, if you had to spend a day outside working on your property, it would be comparatively easy to carry this revolver on your belt or in a backpack - you wouldn't hardly know it was there untill you needed it. The prime disadvantage is that it would be very difficult to aim and shoot accurately, due to it's small size, and you can't stop an attacker with a gun unless you can hit him/it. For this reason I would consider it to be a mediocre choice for self defense. A larger handgun might be a better choice - still small enough to carry easily, while being a bit easier to hit with.
At the other far end of this spectrum you'll find rifles and shotguns. These tend to be at least 3 feet long and weigh 7 pounds or more. This makes them terribly inconvenient to keep close at hand. The great thing about long guns, however, is that they are devastatingly effective at stopping an attacking animal or criminal. They are far easier to hit with compared to handguns, and most long guns are far more effective at stopping whatever attacker once you do hit them. I believe that everyone, especially people who live in the countryside, ought to own at least one good rifle or shotgun.
Your pellet gun should be thought of as a training tool, and NOT as a defensive weapon. A .177 pellet absolutely will NOT stop any sort of attacker, be it an animal or a criminal. Pellet guns a great for practice and training, however. Making a tin can bounce around on the ground with a pellet gun is lots of fun, and is excellent practice as well. So "play" with it and have a good time.
Well, anyway, welcome to APS. We're all happy to help if we can, so don't hesitate to ask. Perhaps you could send your husmand over here to peruse some of these posts. He'll probably find that our politics, and maybe even gun ownership in generall, agree with him.
