If you want to buy a powerful one, yeah, you can spend a small fortune, but a .22 lever action rimfire or something shouldn't cost an arm and a leg.
Cheap equipment == less safe/fewer usages
expensive equipment == more safe/more usages
firearms are kind of important to be safe.
I don't know how well moderators would take it if I posted a link to a site selling firearms, but using that search criteria I found that for about $500 with a good consumer rating (4.5/5 21 ratings; another < $400 with 4/5 4 ratings).
We have one moderator. Badspot, ie Eric Hartman.
Furry research practically gets posted here. We have a drug megathread where people have discussed everything from weed to coke and LSD. There's a special interest megathread. Feel free to post your links.
However, I'm buying my rifles local. I refuse to go used. I'm not strapped for cash in the slightest, if I wanted to I could go and buy my dream rifle (Scar-H, which averages $1500-2500). However, I'm going to college, and that would be extremely wasteful.
So I'm not buying a rifle. I'm waiting until I'm out of college and I have a reliable source of income.
On the other hand, once I graduate I'm investing in a pistol, more than like S&W, and a CC permit. The CX-4 Storm is a 9mm, So I'm thinking a 9mm pistol would be more than ideal. Bare minimum stopping power, and I can switch the ammo back and forth (for the most part, I need to put a little more research into it.)
