The decision to own a firearm is a wise one IMO. Like others have said, you need to familiarize yourselve's with firearm's safety before you responsibly own one. Take a CC class and you will be good to go, it is also something you and your wife can do together and you might really enjoy shooting and take it up as a hobby to share like so many other's have. My piece of advice to you would be that if you decide against a firearm don't let it be due to other's convincing you that a firearm is some dangerous monster that will jump out of a drawer and attack you, they are as safe as the operator/owner.