if you're going to go the route with a weapon. i strongly suggest you do something besides just go to the range and run through a few rounds. shooting at a paper target under perfect conditions with hearing protection is a lot different from being suprised and needing to react in seconds. i highly encourage you to do an urban assualt course or something along those lines. a lot of people tend to freeze when confronted with a hostile attacker. i remember when i did room clearing drills in the military, its a lot different than just aiming at a paper target and squeezing off a round. if you can't handle your weapon, there is a good chance you'll get hurt yourself.

probably the best example is from a movie, granted movies are movies, but this was a pretty good example of knowing how to handle a weapon and not. remember the movie collateral ? tom cruise comes out of a place and some punk points a gun at him, cruise swatted it out of the way and pow, two to the chest. granted it was a movie, but that one scene showed some good points. you better know what you're doing, and pointing a gun at someone is serious business.