There’s many breeders who will ship if you look on the Morphmarket sales pages. You can also look up local listings too if you decide to check closer. If for some reason you are in an area where ball pythons are illegal to own, that’s a different situation and then obviously the breeders would not sell the snake.
Handling will really depend on the personality of the snake. Some are more shy, some are more defensive. Regardless, when you first get your snake, you would want to give them at least a week without handling to let them settle in and then attempt to feed them. You want to avoid handling until they eat, and even if they are eating you want to avoid handling too much until they are eating regularly.
If this is your first reptile, this post is a pretty good list of everything you would need to look at for ball python care.