I am going to come up with a standard post I'm going to insert into all threads like this. Barring that at this time...
Get a gun. Any gun. Really, I'm not not kidding. Go get an Olympic Arms. Go get a DPMS. Go get a pre-ban Hesse for crying out loud, but go get a damn gun. Buy a
Colt or a
Noveske or a
BCM if you can, but buy a damn gun. Buy mags. Buy ammo. Buy mags and ammo. Buy ammo and mags. Get a sling. It doesn't matter which one. Go take a quality, beginner level, fundamentals class. Do it now. Not tomorrow. Stop ****ing around and go do it.
Then come back and we'll talk.
People are wasting so much time and effort worrying about and debating things that they have no way of quantifying. "I want reduced recoil" or "I want light weight" or "I want a shorter barrel" or "what stock/grip/forend should I buy" or "what's the best light for home defense". Stop. Go get a gun, go learn how to operate the gun, go shoot the hell out of the gun, and then lets have an intelligent discussion based on actual use instead of a theoretical discussion based in ignorance.