I don't have friends with guns because I'm not really a social person. My dad offered to take me to a range but I'd rather have some kind of formal classes.
Since you live in Texas, PM me your zip code and I'll find gun ranges in your area.
Tell the front desk you are new to shooting and they will let you choose guns to shoot from for renting, I don't know the cost of renting but it's probably not expensive at all. I would recommend you start off with a Ruger mk III .22 pistol, it's a small round, cheap to shoot, and very little recoil.
For safety, always keep your finger off the trigger until your ready to shoot, only load gun when your about to shoot, make sure you know whats behind your target, and always point it in a safe direction (down range). When you are finished firing last round, pull out mag, visually inspect the chamber to make sure theres nothing in there (never look down barrel of a gun and always assume it's loaded even if it's not).
Most gun ranges have people that can teach you basic safety.
If you want to take classes, I would suggest you take a conceal carry weapons class and they will teach you what you need and you'll also have what you need to conceal if you ever buy a gun.
Once you shoot .22, I'd try shooting a .40 and build your way up, become proficient with the round. Not every gun is made for every hand, for example, I have big meathooks for hands and Glocks are tiny to me, I prefer the big grip of a USP and others hate it.
Make sure the gun is something that you are familiar with, last thing you want is something that goes wrong and you are not sure how to use it.
A lot of women choose revolvers because they use a cylinder and theres few moving parts or little to go wrong on them since it's only a cylinder that rotates to align the ammunition with the barrel.
Semi-autos are a little nicer because they hold a higher capacity but more moving parts = more to go wrong, I suggest anything used by military (Glock, H&K, Sig, Beretta, Springfield, S&W). Polymer frame is lighter and doesn't rust but then again it's all user preference. Stay away from cheapo guns or unknown brands especially pocket pistols marked Raven Arms, Phoenix, Jennings, Bryco, etc. (list here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_night_special). They are usually made of poor metal (pot metal) and the durability and what not are in question if they are even safe to use. That doesn't mean all cheap guns are bad however.
Let me know if you'd like to pursue this, don't wait until the last minute, if you want a gun, now would be the time to learn and i'm willing to walk you through what you need.
