Mark, I assume by FFL you mean Federal Firearms License? Probably just visiting gun dealers would be best. As for paperwork and waiting period, that would be no problem for me.
The situation is this: I'm an honorably retired police officer, which means I can legally carry a concealed handgun in any state as long as I go to the range and qualify periodically. Under Texas law, only once every 2 years, but under Federal law, once a year. Now the fact is that I haven't carried a gun in a long time and don't know whether I ever will again or not. I did go qualify 5 years ago, but hadn't done so since. However, with a little prodding from my wife and a retired lieutenant who used to work for me, I went and got qualified this morning again. I still have the two .38 revolvers I carried for nearly 25 years and one of those is what I qualified with. But the police department now issues Sig Sauer 226 pistols instead of revolvers. And the pistol course has been redesigned for automatics so it's easier to qualify with an automatic. Now I already have the revolvers, I can qualify with one easily enough, and no way I can justify the cost of the Sig, but I'd still like to have one just cause those flush-a-matics are fun to shoot.

Of course, an oddity of the law is that if you qualify with an automatic, you can legally carry either, but if you qualify with a revolver, you can only legally carry revolvers. Of course, that's not a problem for me since I only own revolvers. I also know where I can borrow an automatic if I want to, but I just don't like to borrow anything like that.
In other words, I don't NEED one, and I can't justify the cost, but I just WANT one.

And in those circumstances, if I should buy one, I'd want to get the best price possible.
