Yes, well, I’m only just learning to shoot :) Crazy, I know.
The ‘holy trinity’ of American (and more properly Texan) weapons, and the minimum anyone who can legally possess should have - a home defense/civil unrest shotgun, a multipurpose rifle and a reliable handgun. You can get a Mossberg 500 pump shotgun for about $200-250, an entry level AR-15 type costs about $600-800 and a good bet-your-life-on-it-reliable automatic pistol runs about $4-500.
Which of the local ranges have you been shooting at?