My suggestion, contact a local range and sign up for their training courses. Get edjucated first. After that rent some guns and see what works best for you, revolver, steel frame, poly frame. Then the process to buy is pretty straight forward. Order to ship to dealer, when it arrives fill out the background check. Make sure all docs you bring show your real address, lots of people forget things like updating their license. After that background check clears you will be able to pick up your firearm.

Might want to visit a few ranges, see what crowd is best for you before signing up for classes.