Thanks for the wonderful info., all. Regards to reloading, that is something I do not plan to do right away, but on down the road. As mentioned by Mississippi Dave, I want to learn to shoot well as my main priority first. Regards to how much shooting - my wife and I plan to go to the range approx. a couple times a month for starters to practice our shooting skills. Hopefully the need for self protection will never rise, but if it ever does we want to be sure we are prepared. I guess the intial cost of ammo wouldn't be too expensive at first because of this.
However, this may just be a sport that takes control of our time and we find ourselves more at the range than we expected
On another note, I did find a local seller that has a couple Ruger LCP .380's in stock that he is selling for $299 each. I could probably swing the extra costs over the others if this gun would be a significant improvement over the Hi-Point and/or Kel-Tec. ??
Lastly, regarding the Hi-Point vs. the Kel-Tec - I read that the Hi-Point is a blowback design and the Kel-Tec is a locked breech design. I think I have an idea of the difference, but to be sure could someone please explain it to me? From what I understand, a blowback is when the chamber/slide kicks back when the shot is fired, but I thought all pistols do this, no? Does the Kel-Tec's chamber/slide not kick back when fired? Sorry for the noobness in me...