[Mr. 16 gauge]

One more thing, if you fire a gun inside your home, bedroom or living room, be prepared to be totally deafened by your shot thereafter for some time.

Don't I know it! An acquaintance of mine had a membership to a gun club that had it's rifle range benches covered with a corugated tin roof.....I had good hearing protection on (muffs) and I almost couldn't stand to shoot my M1A1 , it was so loud! My friend had to leave....he was wearing those cheap foam ear inserts.
Another interesting phenomena is muzzle flash.....even at dusk, while there is still some light, the flash from a .357 magnum can be blinding!

Mr. 16 ga. if possible it sounds like you need to join a new shooting club

Unfortunately, kt, it's not a 'club', but rather a public indoor range where anyone can plunk down their cash and shoot.....some just want to see how much ammo they can blow through in an hour, and do thier damndest to do so. Also, there are a LOT of people that have no idea of the basic concepts of gun safety....there are holes in the sides of the shooting lanes, and more than once I have seen people carelessly handle firearms. Unfortunately for me, the only other option is not to shoot....or to shoot much, much less. Living in suburbia, and with my occupation giving me too many variable hours, I can't join a league (although I would like to). There are a few places here that have IDPA, or whatever it's called, but I don't have the fancy guns or rigs that the game calls for.

i say you should definetely draw from the holster, because i told a guy who thought he was hot stuff to try it once and it took him 3 attempts to break his thumbreak on his holster when trying to do it fast.

I have a few holsters with thumb breaks; the neat thing about them is that they seem to become more user friendly the more you practice with 'em (by that, I mean the leather gets 'broke in' and it doesn't seem to take as much effort to release the thumb break). To many variables to mess with....I want it to be 'natural', if you know what I mean.