Kermit . . .
Please permit me to offer a suggestion. Without maligning Taurus revolvers, I recommend you buy your son a new Ruger KGP-141 (the all stainless, four inch barrel, adjustable rear sight GP-100 model). It clearly has excellent quality, fit and finish, superb durability and reliability, and fine accuracy. Moreover, since it will accommodate the wide-range of .38 Special/.357 magnum loads, it is the "everything" gun: personal and home defense, hunting, plinking, target shooting, competition, and so forth. In addition, it is SA/DA, which will teach valuable skills applicable to many other handguns. Finally, GP-100s are so darned rugged that you can rely on the fact that your son can pass this firearm down to his son and even to your great grandson -- and it will still be 100 percent reliable and accurate. You can buy new KGP-141s easily via the Internet for about $350, so it is a great value, too.