Start off with a low recoil gun for training
Buy or rent a .22 caliber gun and/or rifle and get the feel for the sights, scope, and recoil. The .22 will be like a cap-gun in recoil and you can use it to improve your aim until you can buy the higher caliber rifles and gun. Find a place somewhere that lets you try out the guns at a shooting range, try asking security guards where they train at. At the bottom of this post I included an NRA link to find a shooting range near you.
Better yet rather than buy a gun, go to the local arcade that has gun video games and practice with them first, no recoil. Play the game with your wife so she can learn too. Learn how the scope or slot works on a gun, aim the slot just under the target until you can hit it just right. Bass Pro Shops have rifle games, play Skeet shoot, Duck Hunt, Bear Hunt, to get the aiming right. Then when you start to get good, think about buying a gun.
You obviously want something that has stopping power, the ultimate for that is the Browning .50, but it takes great strength to handle the recoil. The Dirty Harry Special is the .45 Magnum, again with a heavy recoil. Won't be much left of anyone you shoot with those pistols. .38 Specials are nice, but you have to learn how a Revolver works and you are limited to just 6 shots. Make sure you learn how to brace yourself for firing one of the heavy guns, and that you learn your breathing control. Take a Hunter Safety course given by Rangers that will teach you gun safety, you will learn the NRA's Ten Commandments of handling a gun from that.
M1 Carbine was the rifle my father used in the Navy, not sure if they sell it to the public. Use whatever rifle they use on Dears or Bears, those are legal. Learn how the bolt action works, or get a Semi-Automatic Rifle if you don't want to mess with a bolt. Remember that it isn't how quick you shoot that counts, it is the accuracy.
You may want to visit the NRA website at:
[link|http://www.nra.org/|http://www.nra.org/]
This will help you find a shooting range:
[link|http://www.nra.org/frame.cfm?url=http://www.nrahq.org/shootingrange/findlocal.asp|http://www.nra.org/f...nge/findlocal.asp]
Tons of other interesting links. Also consider buying a few gun magazines to check out the articles and advertisement.
Good luck.
