It's worth advising a new gun owner on gun storage. The great majority of new buyers will not carry the gun. I think that's a mistake based on being uninformed and not having really thought things through, but a lot of gun owners do not even own a holster. If someone wants to buy their first gun, it's a good question to ask, "Where will you keep it?" More often than not, they will say "in the house" or "in the car." If they had to think of where, they might think of the night stand or the glove box. Whatever they're thinking, it's advisable to say to them something like, "When you're not carrying it, you'll want to keep it in a handgun safe. Were you thinking of carrying so that it would be available when you need it, or just to the range for practice?"
Oftentimes new gun owners are unwilling to carry any gun at first, and least of all a full-size gun. They might be convinced to carry a diminutive pocket pistol, which is usually a poor choice for learning with. In that case, it may be best to acquire a "training gun" to take classes with and to practice with without regard to carrying it. A training gun is less costly than a two-day training class and it can be resold, used to train other new shooters, or kept for home defense. Personally, I like to carry my training gun because it's the best gun to fight for my life with, and that's the purpose for which I carry, not just to have an accessory that won't wrinkle my blouse or pull on my pants.
Some people choose a .22LR training handgun to save on ammunition costs. That's not my advice unless a $1000 dollars worth of training ammo annually would be a severe financial stretch. If that kind of budget for ammo is not even being considered, then they need to switch their training program to .22 rimfire, or they're just buying a gun as another consumer bauble to store at home.
When selecting a gun for carry, the mode of carry and the holster should be taken into consideration, and tried. People will be more successful finding a good gun for them to carry if they're already familiar and competent with a full-size gun. Otherwise, they'll pick a gun that seems easy to carry, and when they're struggling to learn with it, they won't know how much of this is because of the gun. If a person starts with a Glock 17 or a S&W Model 66 and learns to shoot, then they go and pick an LCP for carry, they'll probably find it's a little harder to shoot, but their fundamentals will be sound and they'll have their experience with the full-size gun as a reference to understand whether it's them or the gun. On the other hand, if a new shooter picks out an LCP or an LCR because they think they'd be willing to carry that, and then they struggle right away with learning to shoot, they have no clue how hard they've made things for themselves unless someone lets them borrow a standard-size gun. Of course at some point where the fundamentals are sound, it makes more sense to train with what you carry -- or again, my preference to carry what you train with.
