The world is a crazy place right now and current events are leading many non-gun owners to consider purchasing a firearm for the first time. This is a good thing! Here at PHC we promote equality through firepower.

But it can be overwhelming, right? Where do you even start if you’ve never purchased a gun before? It’s not as easy as one-clicking some plastic bullshit on Amazon (drop Amazon if you still use it, btw). So below I came up with some quick tips to help the first time gun buyer out.

If you’re reading this and already own a bunch of guns, (awesome) feel free to forward it to a buddy you’ve been in touch with recently who might have begun asking YOU questions about getting started. Hope it helps.

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Buying.

For the first time gun buyer, buying a gun can seem daunting, and that’s because it is. Legally owning a firearm is rife with barriers by design. There’s bureaucracy at every turn to discourage the populace from taking up arms.

Of course, depending on your state, you could legally acquire a firearm via a private sale. You could offer to pay a friend for one of their guns, and to make it all legal in the eyes of our crumbling government, you’d go to a local gun store (LGS) and have them facilitate the sale, complete with a background check and transfer fee (usually around $15 to $25 depending) and all the paperwork that shows the gun is now in YOUR name and no longer in your friend’s name. That’s certainly the legal-est way to do it.

Or, you offer your friend money, they give you the gun, maybe jot down a little receipt on a post-it, and we all move on with our lives. I’m not a cop, I’m not telling you what to do.

But lets say you want to be extra legal and go through the whole process, let’s have a look at that:

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Your Local Gun Store:

Google a local gun store. I tend to avoid the chains (Cabelas, Bass Pro) or corporate-style gun “academies” because the guy behind the counter tends to be a dipshit with an agenda, ie, sell so many Caniks this quarter to receive a bonus, etc etc.

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How do you know if your LGS is a corpo-shill? Are all the employees wearing the same uniform? Is everything almost hermetically clean? Big, professionally printed signs over each different area to help direct the flow of customer traffic? If you google the store does it bring you to a main page that asks for you to approve cookies and enter your location? Does the dipshit behind the counter keep steering you towards the Caniks despite your repeated preference for H&K? That’s a corpo gun store.

A true LGS, when you walk in, will be populated by fudd-looking old timers with 1911s stuffed in their belts – belts screaming for the sweet release of death. No one will be dressed the same, it’ll be mostly free t shirts from some gun range, or maybe some shitty screen printed logo of the store itself. There will be shit everywhere, no rhyme or reason, chipped glass cases with oddball parts. Does the owner look like he led the last bayonet charge in the Korean War? This is a true LGS.

So you go in and you start browsing. How do you know which gun is right for you? I wrote an earlier Dispatch with my personal picks for the best guns for first time buyers in 2025, but that’s just MY opinion. You have to go with what feels best for YOU.

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And I say “feels” with purpose. You need to handle the gun. If it doesn’t feel right in your hands, you’ll never want to shoot it. When you first pick up a firearm, it should feel ergonomically like an extension of yourself. It’s hard to explain in words, you just have to go in and feel.

It helps too if you do in fact have a friend with a bunch of different guns. Ask them to take you shooting so you can try out different types. At least that will give you a baseline. You can then take that information with you to the LGS and say something sorta smart like “I shot a Glock 19 the other day, what do you have that’s similar?” And the LGS guy will look at you and say “I have literally 100 Glock 19s in stock…” So that’s a bad example, but you get what I’m saying.

Once you find the gun you want to buy, you will need to fill out the background check paperwork, or ATF Form 4473. It’s a fairly straight forward government document. Just fill out the personal information on top, answer the questions below to the BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE and submit with a current, valid form of identification (typically a state-issued driver’s license from the state in which you are purchasing, US-issued passport, valid military ID, etc). The background check could take anywhere between 5 minutes and 5 days, it just depends. If you have had a name change in the past, it may take longer.

The ATF is a massive bureaucracy that is understaffed and underfunded.

While you’re waiting you may want to consider purchasing accessories for your new gun, like ammo or extra magazines or a holster, depending on what you intend to do with the firearm.

Once the background check comes back with a big ol’ thumbs up, you pay for the firearm and you’re good to go. Congratulations on purchasing your first gun!

Now what?

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Training.

What’s the point of owning a firearm you never shoot it? Fun fact piggies, guns don’t kill people. They don’t magically hop out of the box, eat a bunch of bullets, and spit them out at random. Nope, people kill people, WITH guns. So how do you become proficient?

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You gotta get out there and train. There are many ways to do this, even in your own home.

First, I’d recommend finding a local gun range and becoming a member AFTER you vet them. A lot of ranges these days are “NRA Ranges” meaning that a certain (high) percentage of their members, including all new members, must be NRA members in order to join and enjoy the range. This is highly problematic and I’ve discussed it in an earlier Dispatch so I won’t get into it here.

What you ultimately need is some open land well away from any other human beings. Depending on where you live, this could be as simple as walking out into your back yard or as complicated as loading everything into a car, and driving for an hour or two. There are, of course, indoor ranges, but they can be expensive and limited in what you’re able to do (as in, no drawing from a holster). You’ll just have to google it or hire me to do some research for you (link below…).

Also, I should point out, dry firing (the practice of using an unloaded and cleared firearm and manipulating the fire controls to develop muscle memory) is always free and can be done in your home, just as long as you do so safely. In the Pipehawk House, we have mini IPSCs (cardboard targets somewhat resembling a human-esque shape) on the walls of our gym. Mrs. Pipehawk and I will be in there with our kit and shot timer, working draws, target acquisition, sight pictures, reloads, etc, and it’s mostly free.

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Ok Jim, I found a range, what do I do, just… shoot paper?

Well, yes, but do it with purpose. All shooters, no matter how long you’ve been shooting, should be focusing on fundamentals: Stance, grip, sight picture, breathing, trigger squeeze, reset. Don’t worry about speed. Don’t fall for the hype of having sub-second splits on a shot timer, build comfort and respect of the firearm. Practice the 4 Rules of Gun Safety.​

When the time comes, start looking for firearm training courses you can attend. There are many out there, from basic handgun handling classes put on at your local range, or conceal carry courses, to advanced courses that involve shooting from in/around vehicles and other obstacles, to full on force-on-force simunition courses. Talk to your friends or, again, feel free to hire me to do some research and find whats local to you.

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Competing.

The final step for the new gun owner is advancing to competition shooting.

But Jim, I can hear you oinking, I just bought this gun for personal protection, I don’t need to compete at a match, the fuck are you talking about.

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Heard chef, but consider this: You’ll never know your skill set until you test it. And carrying/using a firearm against (simulated) threats under stress (the shot timer) is as close to testing your skill set as you’ll get in a controlled environment.

Walking out of your first firearms competition, seeing the glaring gaps in your skill set, is incredibly valuable. Now you know what you need to train and you can train with a more focused purpose.

Fumbled those reloads? Go train reloads. Your draw sucks? Work on your draw. Got overwhelmed by the shooting order? Set up multiple targets if you’re able to.

Again, I’m happy you’re considering becoming a firearm owner and taking your and your family’s safety seriously. If I can be of any further assistance, feel free to reach out via email or DM!

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