@Robo27, you don't have to worry about your stats. It's just something to emphasize the significance of unhanded players. As for finding a weapon, whatever basic weapon you choose to start with can be found right off the bat. And because I'm not worrying about money (COL in this instance), so long as everything your character collects is within a fair judgement, then you are free to get whatever you want.
You can even go for special looking weapons, though they will be basic weapons. What this is really doing as forcing your character to look around the town before just heading straight out so that I as the GM can keep track of what all characters know.
So, for your weapon, you may not spawn with it, but depending on your character, looking for their weapon may reveal other things to your character by accident.
Hopefully this answers your question clearly.
Edit: Sorry. i forgot to mention. Yes, your character can start at a higher level, but make sure that if they have such a level, they've been playing the game before the incident and would have noticed the change.