One police sergeant, whose hair pretty much turned a dashing shade of grey during my rookie year, can’t stand it “when the idiot officer, empty-handed, approaches the suspect and talks him out of the gun he’s been pointing at the officer’s head.”

Whoa, big no-no.

Rule number one. Never go to a gunfight empty-handed.

Rule number two. Bad guy points gun at cop, bad guy dies.

The moral of the story is, if you want your protagonist to look brave by walking up empty-handed to a loaded gun pointing at his or her chest, realize that, in this case, brave equals stupid.

©Alison Naomi Holt 2025