Thanks for the welcome! I'll keep your advice in mind. Hope to have a prosperous 'career' here, so long as I can maintain it.
Luckily, I haven't been abused by the local, corrupt sheriff, yet. ;)
No, ma'am; I only pull my sidearm when I need to, and I prefer it when I don't. But over-caution does mean I'm instinctively inclined not to trust unknown people (even if I don't actually suspect them of ulterior motives at first), and always prepare for the possible worst case that I can imagine. It's become second-nature to run a lot of 'what ifs' through my head all day long, and approach every situation from that stand-point -- I don't let contacts get too close or out of sight, and tend to be suspicious of everything they do. Put me in a post that's similar to what I normally do (like SEC), and I'll tend to write it that way. But as it did with the last academy, I discovered that instinct might go beyond what GMs want, so I figured I'd forewarn the rest.
And possibly bring a helmet. :)