I have been watching a documentary on the history of dueling pistols (somewhat on dueling but mostly about the pistols themselves). These flintlock pistols were gorgeous with their carving, inlays and scroll work.
This leads me to think, maybe it's time to bring back dueling.
Dueling may not have made people have better manners or be more polite- there are plenty of examples of some very nasty political campaigns and statements from the early 1800's especially. But people did realize that there were possible consequences for what they said.
Dueling also kept collateral damage down. Imagine- instead of a drive-by shooting because of a grievance- and the deaths or wounding of bystanders and innocent people in their homes, the two persons who are quarreling (and their seconds), show up in an empty field, dressed in a nice suit or formal wear, select their single shot flintlock pistol, and following the rules of dueling take their shot- violate the rules and you are charged with murder or attempted murder...
It would also greatly help reduce the current field of candidates for the Presidency. Trump insults McCain- a nice civilized dual in the middle of Wesley Bowlin Plaza settles the issue- Trump stops insulting McCain after that- one way or the other and a problem is solved (I am not going to get into wether McCain or Trump is the problem because in different ways they both are). And it reduces the "news cycles" we have to bear with stories of the insult, response, backlash, denial, "clarification," polling on the insult, etc etc etc
Until dueling is brought back- I'll settle for single shot paint ball guns at 10 paces... I am still one hell of a good shot.
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