Buy the glock
Buy a Glock 19, specifically. Go ahead and look at the gun magazines or all the models in the store, at all the amazing options available! Guns are awesome and there are a lot of really great choices out there. After you become safe and proficient with your first gun, go nuts, fill your safe with some of the great handgun models (and long guns) out there.
Don’t overthink the initial gun purchase though. Just buy a Glock 19. The most important aspects of buying your first gun are learning the fundamental safety rules, good gun handling, and training. Buying a manageable and reliable gun is necessary, but it isn’t the most important aspect of the process.
Your first gun should be a Glock 19 because:
It’s semi-automatic. The two most common systems are revolvers and semi-automatics. Semi-autos hold more rounds, and the process of reloading is simpler. Further, the triggers are lighter and easier to master than a revolver.
As a ‘compact,’ or medium-sized gun, it’s the right size for everyone to shoot, men and women, large and small. It’s big enough to be manageable and fun to shoot (smaller the gun, harder to shoot well), but small enough to conceal if you go that far in your journey.
As a 9mm gun, it’s chambered in a large enough caliber to be very effective defensively, yet the caliber is small enough to be able to shoot enjoyably. As 9mm is the most popular pistol round, target ammunition is cheaper to buy and shoot in large quantities.
To continue the car metaphor in the first post of this blog, it’s the “Toyota Camry” of guns. A utilitarian choice that works well, remains very reliable, is extremely common and everyone knows how to work on them so you can upgrade sights and triggers later if you want to.
As one of the most popular guns in circulation, accessories like holsters and inert replica guns (blueguns) are very widely available.
It has no external safety. This may be counterintuitive, but external safeties are less safe. If you make the 4 Rules muscle memory, there is no use for or need for an external safety. If however, you rely on an external safety, you’re likely hoping it’ll save you from bad gun handling practices and that is extremely unsafe. Make the 4 Rules muscle memory, keep a loaded gun in a holster, and you’ll be safe with any gun. Keep the gun in a holster when not being handled, protecting the trigger. When removed from the holster you’re following the 4 Rules where your finger is off the trigger, and the barrel is pointed in a safe direction. Safer. Simpler. Glocks do have internal safeties, like all modern guns, so as with all modern guns if you drop it the gun will not fire. Never try to catch a dropped gun because you’d inevitably violate one or more of the 4 Rules. Let it fall, then pick it up safely.
When you do go buy a Glock 19, there may be some options available. All Glock 19s regardless of options are good choices. Some notes on the options:
You may find a used gun available. While these are almost always fine (Glocks are resilient). I’d still buy new to avoid any questionable home gunsmithing (usually tinkering with the trigger or recoil spring). The cost savings for a used Glock is usually $100 or less and not worth the unknown history.
You may find different generations of Glocks available. Gen5 are currently the newest and preferable (better barrels and triggers than prior generations), but Gen4 or Gen3 are fine.
You may have the option of an ‘MOS’ version. The ‘Modular Optic System’ is what Glock calls the optional plate on top of the slide that allows you to mount a red dot optic on top of the gun. The MOS option usually adds $50-$75 to the price and allows the option to add a red dot optic in the future. While new to shooting stick to the iron sights. Using iron sights and using red dot optics are both distinct skills that have to be learned, so stick to learning iron sights first. Feel free to buy the MOS version though if you’d like the option to install a red dot optic in the future.
When you’re ready to buy the gun you’ll simply need to go to your local gun store and follow local laws, which your local gun store can explain. In almost all US states you simply need to be a resident, over 21, present a valid drivers license, and pass a Federal background check that usually takes 30min. In California, New York and New Jersey it will be more complicated, but your local gun store can walk you through it.
(Personal aside, I am not a Glock fanboy! Only 19% of my personal collection is currently made up of Glocks… My first gun was a Ruger P89 which was fine, and I still have, but I would have started my younger self off with a simpler striker-fired gun with no external safety, and told my younger self to focus on the four rules, and training, up front.)