Posted this over at THR but thought I'd get some input here as well.
I am 21 and am just getting into guns. I went to the range last weekend for the first time and had a great time. I'm looking to purchase my first handgun, but I'm going into my last year of college and will (hopefully) be in medical school for 4 years after that, so money will be pretty tight for a while. So I'm looking for something relatively inexpensive (~500$ range) that can be used for CC, home defense, target practice, etc. Basically something that can do it all.
I've been looking around and I think I have it narrowed down to a few choices. The Glock 19 comes pretty highly recommended, the only thing that worries me is the lack of a grip or manual safety. Obviously I don't plan on doing anything stupid, but I am new and can't rule out that it may happen, and just having the trigger safety on the Glock worries me a bit.
I have also been looking at the xD series, however I'm not really sure what would be the most comparable in size/concealability to the Glock 19. For what it's worth, I shot the Glock 17 and the xd9 sc at the range, and liked the xD a bit more. I think I'd like something in between the two as far as size though. As far as I can tell though, the Glock sounds to be a bit more reliable, which is nice since this will most likely be my only gun for a while.
I am still open to other suggestions, but since I'm trying to narrow down the search I've tried to limit it to these. I am aware that there are tons of xD vs glock threads, and I have read a bunch of them, but is there any 9mm that would best fit my needs as kind of an all purpose gun? Thanks in advance
I am 21 and am just getting into guns. I went to the range last weekend for the first time and had a great time. I'm looking to purchase my first handgun, but I'm going into my last year of college and will (hopefully) be in medical school for 4 years after that, so money will be pretty tight for a while. So I'm looking for something relatively inexpensive (~500$ range) that can be used for CC, home defense, target practice, etc. Basically something that can do it all.
I've been looking around and I think I have it narrowed down to a few choices. The Glock 19 comes pretty highly recommended, the only thing that worries me is the lack of a grip or manual safety. Obviously I don't plan on doing anything stupid, but I am new and can't rule out that it may happen, and just having the trigger safety on the Glock worries me a bit.
I have also been looking at the xD series, however I'm not really sure what would be the most comparable in size/concealability to the Glock 19. For what it's worth, I shot the Glock 17 and the xd9 sc at the range, and liked the xD a bit more. I think I'd like something in between the two as far as size though. As far as I can tell though, the Glock sounds to be a bit more reliable, which is nice since this will most likely be my only gun for a while.
I am still open to other suggestions, but since I'm trying to narrow down the search I've tried to limit it to these. I am aware that there are tons of xD vs glock threads, and I have read a bunch of them, but is there any 9mm that would best fit my needs as kind of an all purpose gun? Thanks in advance