When you buy your first gun you won’t be stopping at just the firearms. You will need to buy at least a few essential accessories. Don’t leave the gun shop without buying the following:

• Cleaning kit: It is very important to clean your gun before you first use it, and after every use.
• A Safe or Lockbox: You’re not gonna leave that gun lying around the house where kids or other unauthorized people can get a hand on it, are you?
• Ammunition: It’s cheaper to buy ammunition from gun stores or (even cheaper) third-party websites than from the gun range.
• Eye and Ear protection
• Range Bag: You will need a good bag in which to carry your firearm, ammunition, eye and ear protection, and speedloader to and from the range.
• Targets: It gets expensive buying targets from the gun range every time you go there. They’re a lot cheaper elsewhere. Or you could do what I do: Get a pack of 200 sheets of construction paper for a buck-fifty, and draw circles on them with a marker. I take one sheet per magazine I intend to fire at the range.

Once you’re at home with your gun, you need to read the manual. Learn all the safety features of the gun, and make sure you’ve read and heeded the warnings. Learn how to field strip (disassemble) the gun. And then clean your gun. Your manual will probably instruct you to clean your gun before you first use it. You should also clean your gun after every time you use it at the gun range.

Continue reading: The Importance of Picking the Right Ammunition