GUNS IN FLORIDA: Dueling Reform Needs Legislative Action. Guest Blog by Ross Hancock

Now that Florida has successfully addressed the gun threat to our schools, and the governor has signed the flawed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act into law (with the votes of just a very, very few Democrats, including my own Miami State Rep. Nick Duran), the newly emboldened NRA is ready to solve other problems.

As the governor and legislature have made clear, gun violence is not caused by guns. It is caused by unarmed people. This is exactly what the gun industry and Constitutional scholars (such as that guy who always comments on any Facebook discussion that “assault weapon” does not mean “assault weapon”) have been saying all along.

With more people in the workplace and elsewhere fulfilling their duty to bear arms as ordained by scripture and the Second Amendment, the next legislative session is expected to take up the long-neglected issues surrounding dueling, and whether dueling needs more or less regulation. Florida is on its way, at last, to eliminating “gun-free zones,” where the lack of guns creates a public threat. So our public places cry out for clear rules of etiquette – the “Code Duello” that once governed trial by combat in Europe.

We already have “Stand Your Ground” laws, which cover the rights of the armed person when confronting a renegade unarmed person. But the situation in which two peaceful armed persons wish to lawfully and safely engage in a duel is currently unregulated. Once-sacred dueling traditions that were second-nature to the Founding Fathers are almost forgotten today, and clear rules are needed. (Especially in Florida, where even seemingly obvious things like traffic lights are interpreted inconsistently.)

The responsible gun-owner community has long been aware of the societal benefits of dueling. The rudeness that now pervades our lives, whether in public or online, would not have been allowed to fester back in the day when a justifiably wronged person could demand “satisfaction” on the spot. Workplace disputes and unfair commercial transactions that now clog our courts will soon be resolved by safe, economical duels. When disagreements can be nipped in the the bud, long-simmering antagonisms will no longer take their toll on the mental and physical health of our citizens, whether they be school cafeteria workers, Facebook users, or just drivers on U.S. 1.

The NRA can play a positive role by providing education and certification in the area of dueling etiquette, equipment and safety. They can also ensure that responsible legislation passes in a timely way. Some will object that regulation of dueling treads on the spirit of the Second Amendment itself. But the oft-overlooked “well-regulated militia” clause can, and should, be interpreted as opening the door to responsible rules.