I did not grow up shooting and am very new to firearms. My wife an I just took CCW course, and I am looking to make my very first firearms purchases. I will be purchasing handguns and an AR-15 for personal defense (and likely . YouTube and this forum have been extremely informative and I have gone to the range a few times to get a feel for different pistols. I have also gone shooting with a friend’s service M16 and took a P90 (very fun) for a spin yesterday at my local range just for kicks.

I have a good sense for pricing on pistols and think that between local gun shops and gun shows I should be able to find what I want at a reasonable price point.

As far as the AR15, I have found some promising options on Gunbroker, but was hoping I could get advise from everyone here on what to look for and what to ask sellers to make sure I am getting a quality product and not getting screwed. Thank you in advance.

Edit: Thank you for all the input! It sounds like from the feedback that GunBroker is more for hard to find items and simply purchasing from an online store is simpler, less risk (standard ARs would be backed by manufacturer instead of seller), and has same tax advantages.