Guest Post by Morbo
Florida’s legislature has passed a law allowing people to “use deadly force in a public place if they have a reasonable belief they are in danger of death or great bodily harm.”
When it comes to guns, I try to be a reasonable man. If an ex-convict is trying to break into your home while brandishing a machete and a machine gun, by all means, use deadly force to repel him. It’s the taking it to the streets that bothers me here.
Life in our cities is dangerous enough. Most people are driving SUVs so big that, even if the drivers were paying attention and not talking on the phone, they still would not be able to see pedestrians. Red lights are increasingly seen as merely advisory, and too many drivers are way too wired on high-test coffee way too early in the morning. The last thing this mix needs is crossfire.
The Florida standard also seems dangerously vague. One man’s “reasonable belief” of imminent harm is unreasonable to another. A short, skinny man who exchanges heated words with a muscular fellow might interpret even a slightly aggressive move as a “reasonable belief” that bodily harm could follow. And if he’s carrying concealed, pulling out his piece might seem the best way to even the odds.
This is a dangerous power to bestow upon men. Let’s face it, some guys just like to fight. Someone gets jostled in a bar, and the next thing you know, two half-drunk dudes are out in the parking lot going at it with broken beer bottles. (I don’t mean to sound sexist, but let’s be honest and admit this is a guy thing. A woman in a similar position would wait until her antagonist left the room then say to her friends, “Did you see that stupid top she had on?”) [Editor’s Note: Remember to email your complaints directly to Morbo, not me. -CB]
Florida lawmakers who opposed the bill argued that it would create a “Wild West” mentality in the state. That’s exactly the problem. It would. We don’t need these “High Noon” hijinks. There is a better way.
Rather than emulate the Wild West, Florida legislators would do better to look at a different historical period. Prior to the Civil War, every American city of decent size had a dueling field where men of honor met to settle their differences. It’s time to bring them back.
Traditional dueling was governed by strict codes of behavior. Those who wished to fight appointed “seconds,” personal representatives who conducted negotiations over the details – what weapons, what distance, what day, etc. Whenever possible, seconds also tried to resolve the point of conflict between the two men and head off bloodshed. An aggrieved party, for example, might accept an apology rather than a “personal interview,” the euphemism for a duel.
At all times, a gentleman remembered how to conduct himself. Read the letters that went back and forth between America’s two most famous duelists, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. They were extremely formal and excessively polite. Letters usually closed with a salutation like, “Your humble and obedient servant.” Trash talk simply was not tolerated.
Sometimes the lengthy exchange of formal notes allowed passions to cool, and bloodshed was averted. But when a fight became inevitable, a duel had one very tangible benefit: It was a private affair that presented no threat to innocent bystanders. Opponents usually met on the dueling grounds, away from the population center, early in the morning when most people were still in bed. This eliminated the possibility of a 5-year-old girl getting gunned down because she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
(For more on dueling, see The Duel: A History by Robert Baldick and Gentlemen, Swords and Pistols by Harnette T. Kane. Both are out of print, but worth tracking down. Try Alibris or Half.com)
My guess is that the gun nuts who love to carry concealed and burn to use deadly force on the streets imagine that someday they will be a hero, thanks to their weapon. They think they will just happen to be there in time to foil a bank robbery or save someone from a rapist. They want the deadly force standard to be extended to the streets so they can play Dirty Harry.
Well, Dirty Harry was a fictional character. Had he been real, he would still, despite his frequent flouting of proper procedures, have been a trained professional who was taught how to use a gun. His training would have extended to more than taking potshots at paper targets of Osama bin Laden down at Billy Bob’s Shooting Range and Barbecue/NASCAR Emporium.
Rather than save a coed from a serial killer, most guys carrying concealed are more likely to end up shooting someone who cut them off in traffic. Hotheads and cool guns are a bad combination.
I don’t want to take their guns away. I just want them to be forced to play with them far, far away from me. For Burr to kill Hamilton, both men had to row across the Hudson River and scale a bluff overlooking Weehawken, N.J. It was difficult for a reason.
So, let’s set aside some surplus land outside of town and let modern-day duelists have at it. Bringing back the gentlemanly code will be good for the gun crowd — it will smooth their rough edges. It will be good for the rest of us, too. A field of honor sure beats the alternative: dodging bullets when you’re just trying to eat potato skins down at TGI Friday’s.