First, ask yourself if you could kill another human being. If the answer is ‘no’ then do not buy a firearm.
Second, whatever firearm you get, make sure you practice, practice, practice. Enroll in one of the great courses out there like the following:
http://www.defense-training.com/
Third, if you have kids, teach them the NRA Eddie Eagle program. If they have an interest, get them a .22 rimfire so they can join you at the range. It makes for great bonding between parent/offspring.
Finally, you will hear a million opinions on what to buy. Try different firearms. If you join a range, make friends and ask to try what they shoot. There is no “right” answer.
I TOTALLY disagree with that. Depending on which study you look at, somewhere between 2/3rds and 3/4ths of all successful self-defense uses of a gun don't involve firing it. The vast majority of perps will turn and run when they see a real gun pointed at them. You don't even have to have it loaded. And I'm sure there's another *big* percentage who will run for it if a warning shot is fired into the ground/floor in their general direction.
Get a gun, give serious thought to what you're really willing to do with it, and then plan accordingly.
But honestly, I think there are very people who couldn't bring themselves to kill another human being, when that human being is obviously about to kill or seriously harm one of your loved ones. You don't know in advance what specific situation you might find yourself in that could call for using your gun, either as a scare-away tool or to really take down the perp.
And of course there are situations where shooting at an object can save someone -- if some guy breaks into your house in the middle of the night, grabs your 6 year old daughter and you get outside the front door just as he's driving away with her, what kind of parent really wouldn't be able to bring themselves to try to shoot the tires out of his car? Even if you miss, it would have the effect of alerting neighbors, who would call 911 while you're still trying to note the description and tag number of the vehicle.
Absolutely! I would not hesitate to kill in order to protect myself, my family and my property.
My daughter is 3 months old now, so I should probably wait until she at least starts crawling before I get her to the range. ;-)
Thanks for the advice! I’ll be spending plenty of time at the range just up the street!