1) If you ever feel concerned enough to want to purchase your first firearm for protection, I’d like to suggest you go to the pawn shop and get a Remington 870 shotgun, or a mossburg 500 if they’re out of Rem. You can pick them up used for cheap, they’re easy to use,

2) easy to train with, rounds are cheap and plentiful and they are very effective and versatile at shorter ranges. Birdshot/etc for indoors and small game hunting. Buck or slugs for longer range or outdoors defense, big game hunting, or removing door hinges if that’s your thing.

3)rifles are good for ruling range but they take practice and rifle ammo which is scarce. Learning and short range defense is less practical and has been for half a decade if it’s coming out of a survival budget.

4) Handguns are harder to train with out of your own pocket, like rifles, though they are obviously easily concealed. You can figure out basic shotgun function and be effective in one day. Not gonna happen with your average shooter with a handgun.

5) I’ve trained thousands of Marines, foreign units, and civilians on all sorts of weapons systems and this is always my suggestion. In case anyone ever gets concerned.