This might be a cool section of the forum. There are many areas to focus on when selecting a firearm. I will share my thoughts on what worked for me. Your results may vary. When I started my search for my first firearm, I knew that I wanted a home defense shotgun. I have not been for or against guns, but honestly, just woke one day and thought due to the economy and for the piece of mind, I needed something. Asking a few friends, the choice was between a mossberg 500 and a Remington 870. BOth of these are pump action. I knew I could not afford anything fancier, such as the autoloading type of shotgun. I selected the 870 based on reviews, price and I knew a few people that had one. SO, after that "need" was covered, I wanted a target shooting rifle. The only bit i knew was the difference between a bolt action and a semi-auto rifle. I selected a Savage Arm bolt action 22LR. I liked the fact that with the bolt action, the chamber is not loaded until I provide the feedback of pulling the bolt back to eject the spend round and then push forward to load a live round. This bolt action thing was fine, until I got to shoot a semi auto 22LR ( a Remington 597 from another member here on OR). Now that I had a sense of shooting and understanding of gun safety, the semi auto looked like the next choice, so I picked up a Marlin 795. So far, total money spent on both 22 lr rifles is about $300, including scopes and carry cases. Once I got my target rifle, I then looked into a pistol. So then, I had to look at revolver versus the semi auto, single action versus double action, brand names and caliber. Ask questions, talk to people and ask why they selected what they have. I picked up a used FEG 9mm Browning hi-power clone for $200. It is single action, semi auto,14 round, fit my hand and the price was right. Then to wrap this up, I have turkey hunting shotgun and a skeet shotgun. Next I will be on a quest for a hunting rifle.