to the world little one.

Still kinda here.

Why not retrofit every home with sprinklers?

Are you saying councilman, that it's acceptable for people who can't afford new homes to be burned alive?

Hmm, except that "Congress shall have Power To ... provide for the common Defence ... of the United States", you could easily argue that assisting with training and equipping the people is part of governments responsibility as a well regulated Militia, is necessary to the security of a free State.

See Civilian Marksmanship Program for instance.

Silly, just blur the terrorist bases and let the problem solve itself.

Yeah, longer sight picture would be the biggest benefit with the extended slide.

Not to push the issue, but a 4-6" revolver with .38 target loads is comparable to a 9mm in recoil, my wife has a couple revolvers and much prefers them to pistols. Partly because she doesn't get hit by flying brass. Have your wife look at someone doing the hot-brass-down-the-cleavage-dance-videos and see how she feels about that prospect :-)

But if revolvers aren't your thing, you might want to look at a Government sized 1911 in 9mm. It's a heavier gun so less recoil, longer slide with a 5" barrel, the best trigger of any pistol, external safeties. To me that sounds very much like what you're looking for.

In the end of course it may come down to what you want to get, not what fulfills certain requirements. Glocks are fine guns that go bang every time. The wife owns a Taurus revolver, and I wouldn't mind getting one. But I wouldn't get a Taurus semi-auto, there are better ones out there for not much more money. Of the choices you've listed, I'd get the Glock 17L. 17L rather than 34 simply because the 17 is an extremely popular gun and you shouldn't have any problem finding parts for it.

Was start by buying a .22, that way I could spend the money on ammo and basic range accessories to begin with while building some basic shooting skills. Remember to budget for ear muffs, glasses, range bag, targets, ammo, case, any lock box/cabinet/safe, trigger/cable locks, cleaning supplies, range membership...

Once I had the .22 I could learn how the range works, and more easily decide what I liked and didn't like about the gun. So when buying the next gun after a few thousand .22 rounds, and renting a few others, I had far more experience shooting and handling guns and had a better understanding of what I was looking for. I bought my .22 with the understanding that it was not to be my only gun, but a start in learning more. I fully expected to sell it when I found another gun, but I still use it a lot just to work on trigger control and sight alignment.

As far as your choices:
I don't think you'll see much benefit in reality from the slightly longer barrel, my Glock 19 has a 4" barrel and still shoots far better than I do... I'm just thinking that if you want a target gun, I tend to think there are better choices than Glock.

Because I'm a fan of wheelguns, I also have to ask: Have you considered a revolver? A good .357 with a 4-6" barrel can be found for about $400, giving you the option of shooting soft (and cheap) .38 special target loads, or very hot .357 loads in the same gun.