Train...

If there is one word of caution I would give anyone who is considering even owning a handgun, not even carrying one, just owning one is this; train.

Get used to it, learn about it, mess with it, hold it in your hand, take it apart, put it back together, wear the novelty off of it.

When I got my first handgun, a 1911, I was in love, and I was a new kid with a toy. And that was a bad place to be. These things aren't toys. So, luckily, I realized I was enamored with it so I decided to wear the novelty off of it as soon as I could.

Here's how I did that. I would sit on the couch (after the wife and pups went to bed), watch TV, and take it apart, then reassemble, take it apart, reassemble, wet, lather, rinse repeat. I'd do this for hours.

This did a couple things for me; one I was extremely familiar with it, I knew every inch of that weapon. I could tell if something wasn't seated right, or something didn't feel right, etc. The second thing it did was wore the "new" off of it. It helped me remember that it was a tool and nothing more.

After you've done that, then you need to go to your local range and practice, practice, practice. You HAVE to put rounds down range, you have to know what it feels like to pull the trigger. You have to know what rounds will feed, which ones won't, what is the recoil like, what's the report (big boom) like. You also need to make sure that you can hit your target!!

A little bit about hitting the target...
It is the single most important thing you need to know. You have to be able to hit your target.

If I'm a bad guy and I'm after you and you pull a gun on me and I see you hesitate, or you miss, well, you're completely done for. I will take that weapon away from you in a heartbeat (less than 1.5 seconds to be sure) and that's the end of the show.

A gun is pointless as a brandishing weapon. Ever seen "Tombstone"? You know the part where Wyatt bumps in to a guy going up the stairs, the kid gets pissy and pulls his vest open to show his gun. Wyatt then snatches it out of his pants, and clonks the kid over the head with it. Yeah, all it takes it willful action and quick thinking and you're now weaponless...

Not to mention that bullets travel a long way. Sir Issac Newton stated that an object in motion will stay in motion until acted upon by an outside force.

For instance, if you fire a .45 ACP round from about 3.5 feet it will travel at a starting velocity of 850 feet per second and travel about 300-350 feet before gravity pulls it to the ground.

So, you pull the trigger, you miss, you could very well injure someone else in the process. That's bad.

So, practice, practice, practice... get good, get confident.