I finally picked up my first pistol--a bi-tone XDm! Over the past few weeks, I had been dropping in to Applied Ballistics to get some range time, comparing calibers with the rentals, etc. In all, I picked the brains of Stan, Dave, Chris, and the RO.
I let 'em all know I was new to guns and learned some great stuff from all of them. They let me know what to pay attention to when I was renting and we finally closed the deal earlier today.
If you've been into guns your whole life, you may be able to make a decision a lot quicker than I could but none of them seemed to mind.