I may get a little flak for this But I don’t think your first handgun should be a compact sized gun that you immediately start stuffing into your pants.
OK, here's some flak (37mm, not 88
)
If you are going to be "stuffing a Glock into your pants", I suggest you use FMJ ... That way, when you shoot yourself in the testicles, you will at least be using "ball ammo".
and another thing, if you DO stuff a Glock, or any of the clones that don't have a positive safety lever (lock) into your pants, if it slips and starts to fall, DON'T GRAB IT!!!!!!
Holsterless carry (aka "Mexican carry") of a Glock or any thing similar is a stupidly dangerous thing to do. And recommending it to a beginner is VERY poor advice.
Should one's first handgun be a range gun or a carry gun??
Range gun. And NOT one of the compact or subcompact semi autos or a snub nose revolver.
And, it should be a .22. Especially if you are on a tight budget. Something in the "sport pistol" class, with decent sights and a fair trigger. Something big enough to easily handle and shoot. Because your first handgun is a training tool, more than anything else.
My life was different from yours. The first pistol I actually bought was a .45ACP. BUT, I grew up in a family who had, and used guns. Dad was and NRA safety instructor, and by the time I bought my first pistol, I had nearly a decade's worth of practice and instruction on and with Mom & Dad's pistols. And yes, I absolutely started with a .22.
First thing is LEARN TO SHOOT well, and how to safely handle the pistol. Everything else comes later.
The only way to get good at shooting is to shoot. And shoot properly, not just bang off rounds in the general direction of the target. That takes practice, PROPER practice, and that takes ammo which means cost. 9mm is "Cheap" but only in comparison to other centerfire rounds.
.22LR is the cheapest (lowest cost) ammo there is. You get more practice for less cost with a .22 than any other cartridge firearm.
Simply put, you need to learn how to drive before you go out into big city traffic.
Like driving, carrying a handgun has two major parts. The first, is the mechanical aptitude and skill to operate the "vehicle" (learning to shoot and safely handle the gun) the second is more complex, its the "traffic laws" and the "rules of the road", and is an entirely different matter than just being physically capable of driving.
Start with learning to shoot, and for that, nothing is as good as a .22. The rest can come later.
Now, there is a school of thought that says you should just go out and get the gun you will wind up carrying, and learn to use it. There is some merit to that line of thought.
HOWEVER, doing that makes the learning curve steeper than necessary, and more expensive (ammo costs), and it also assumes you KNOW what you will wind up carrying to begin with.
Lots of us
knew what we wanted, and what we were going to do, when we were beginners. Then, as we learned things (by doing - shooting etc) some of us learned how much we didn't know.
And, we also learned that what was right for someone else might not be the best thing for us. Get some personal shooting experience, to base your opinions on. You might learn something that changes your choices.