I've never done anything stupid in my youth, never. Wait. I got that wrong...:lol:
Welcome. If you decide that you really will carry, take a class first if you can; you'll learn how to stay out of trouble and defend yourself in one shot. If you don't mind reading a bit, check out
The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery volume 6 (
Amazon $17). Massad is kind of annoying since he's his own ad for himself, but there is a lot of good information. One great thing is grip method--you'll find the strongest grips only work well with Glocks ($700) HKs ($1000) and Ruger P80 and P90 series ($550) (plus specific Kahr models and a few others). Some of his stuff is bunk, but on the whole he's pretty good when it comes to defensive methods.
Glocks are light and easy to shoot; they always work. Ruger is cheap, mid-weight, and the P80/90 series is really comfortable; decocking/safe lever is a bit hard to reach. HK is super accurate, heavy, costly, and has a lot of hard-to-find parts; it's the bells-and-whistles gun. Light is nice after a day of carry (the gun doesn't get lighter as the day goes on), and S&W makes the AirLight ($800) in 5 and 7 shot revolvers chambered for both .38 Special (light recoil) and .357 Magnum. Unlike an auto-loader, revolvers work when someone is on top you.
The forum on OpenCarry is another good source of information. Trying to read it all is overwhelming, but there is a lot of good stuff and good people.