Lessons From My First Gun Purchase

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Like many men now in their late twenties I grew up on war movies and Call of Duty. I've never been scared of guns and have always wanted to own and train with the best weapons money can buy.

I was raised to believe the Second Amendment is a crucial protection for American citizens. We have the right to protect ourselves. Beyond that, there is an undeniable cool factor to the responsible ownership of weapons. Building, training, collecting – it's a hobby as much as it is a form of protection from the worst of scenarios.

That said, I put off buying my first gun for far too long. There were two reasons for this.

First, I have never lived in the same place for more than a year or so. Whether it be a different state, city, or even just apartment, I've moved around frequently from early adulthood to now. I was operating under the assumption that I didn't need a weapon for home defense if I really never stayed anywhere long enough to make it a home.

And that is the first piece of advice I'll give here on CDN: frequent moving should not discourage gun ownership.

Second, I was ignorant to the process of obtaining a firearm. I knew that laws vary from state to state. The thought of filling out any type of government paperwork is an instant headache for me, so I just never did the research and assumed it was a major hassle. I soon learned that even in the communist state of California you can obtain a firearm fairly easily (I believe their should be no barriers beyond providing identification, so comparatively it is a ridiculous process but certainly not preventative. The laws are meant to be confusing and deter citizens from getting guns and that is why they are effective).

For these two reasons, I put the thought of gun ownership on the back burner.

Then, in the summer of 2023, my life was starting to become more valuable. What I mean is I felt like I had things to protect. A bit of money in the bank, a nice whip, and most importantly a girlfriend living with me. I started looking further ahead, realizing that I was actually building a life. I felt a sense of pride and, naturally, a sense of the need to protect.

In addition, wars began breaking out around the world, our border situation wasn't getting any better, and the total state of the world really began to give me a sense of constant danger. For years I felt a sense that our own government no longer had its citizens best interest in mind. By summer of 2023 I was certain this was the case. While I believe in American Democracy, I see many who don't within our borders. They run powerful corporations, they're serving in office, and they're blogging in coffee shops. Could we have an internal collapse? Seems inevitable on the path we're on.

All of this had me thinking it was time to start arming myself. I've seen first hand how quickly localized societies can collapse – I lived within the CHAZ/CHOP zone in Seattle during the BLM riots and, as much of a joke as that whole scenario was, people really wanted to kill each other. They wanted disorder and anarchy. I saw it every day. And I saw some manipulation and corruption in the police departments as well. The shit can hit the fan at any moment. It was true then and it is more true now.

In California, you can only buy one gun every 30 days. I'm trying to keep this post short so I'm gonna skip over my opinions of these regulations. Seeing as I would have to be mindful of this limitation, I had to decide between a rifle or handgun as my first weapon. I figured the most important thing to have first is a small handgun. Something that could be concealed, easily transported, and easy to train with.

Around this time, an entrepreneur I follow on X posted a photo of him editing designs for his clothing brand with a small pistol on the table. It ended up being a S&W MP Shield and the comments were all saying how they love that gun for concealment. I decided to get one on impulse.

Now this is interesting about the era we live in. I'm all about doing your own research, taking the time to really know what you're getting into when it comes to something as serious as buying your first firearm.

However, decision fatigue is a thing too. Is there something wrong with buying a gun because someone you look up to has one? Isn't that what we do with clothes, food, cars? Assuming you're a responsible law abiding citizen, I see no problem with that.

There are a lot of old heads in the gun community. They talk about the importance of 2A, that our rights are being slowly taken from us, and yet they indirectly discourage new gun owners from entering the community by a superiority complex. So that's my second piece of advice on this network: if you're thinking about getting your first gun, see something that looks cool online, and can obtain it legally? Buy it. And I'll tell you why...

Looking back, I would never have chosen the MP Shield as my first gun. But here's the deal: I went from the seeing the tweet to having it in my hands 11 days later. I bought ammo. I dry fired in my living room and practiced handling the weapon. Then I started going to the range and practicing. The virgin knife collector is still deciding what grain ammo he needs.

Look, be responsible. Know your gun safety rules. Don't be an idiot. And then just go get a fucking gun.

So a month later, after getting experience handling a pistol, I started learning. The difference between ammo sizes. The benefits of full size pistols and compact pistols.

And I started researching rifles, specifically AR15s. I went on to build my first AR, learning a ton about the platform as well as California's insane restrictive laws. I bought another pistol, etc etc. It helps to have some spare cash if you're going to take my approach of impulse buying different shit and learning hands-on. But the bottom line is this: if you don't own a gun, find something that looks good and buy it. Don't let the old heads on Reddit say it's a bad gun. Don't let the gun store dude at Turner's with his tucked in red polo sell you on something else. Practice responsible ownership and train. You'll learn quicker and avoid the mistake of falling into the decision fatigue trap.