>>1294254best gun for you might be a cheaper, used revolver. if you have to hide it a shotgun is out, and rifle is just as hard to hide. but if its a first gun, revolver and shotgun do the job the best for what i think is going to be your needs for the next 5 years.
You can get a new Ruger LCP 38 for around $350-450 so used could mean $200~ish for you, as long as youre willing to settle for $200`ish and then some tax. if you dont mind a scratched and worn in S&W old police revolver I would highly suggest that.
My thinking is this: You have a reason to have a gun now, but in a year or two, your reason will get settled down, and your gun will get put in the night stand and left alone until that reason comes back or you get a new reason for owning a gun. But you'll have stopped going to the range by then. Stopped plinking on the weekends. So it will have been sitting at the ready in your night stand for years waiting to be needed, which could be 5+ years from now. So you need a gun that will serve your needs now, as well as tolerate abandonment, not lubed or cleaned, full of dust, and filled with old ammo. Revolvers do that exceptionally well. That is one of the few things they do exceptionally well. A gun with a slide that needs to action back and forth to operate will need lubrication. without it, they jam up like smuckers on toast. lube lasts for months, its true. But, if you dont shoot anymore are you really going to be lubing your pistol regularly? no youre not. but a revolver will operate even if left in the night stand or a safety deposit box for 15 years. ~And even if you do get the 1 in 500,000 dud rounds that dont go bang, or if your ammo is left in that night stand in Louisiana or where ever that is humid so its in a mildly moist environment for 15 years and one or two bullets DO go bad over 15 years... well all you have to do is pull the trigger again and the cylinder will rotate and give you another try.
