This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories.

House Resolution 8 was introduced on March 5th, 1838. The bill was drafted

following a duel between U.S. congressmen. Here to tell the story is Ashley Lubinsky. Ashley is the

former co-host of Discovery Channel's Master of Arms, and she's also the co-founder of the University of Wyoming College of Laws

Firearms Research Center.

Here's Ashley.

When you think about duels, you usually think of two men that have a bone to pick with each other.

And I think the most well-known duel is the one

between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burt. But what I don't think a lot of people realize

is that dueling, which has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, is often an illegal

practice. I think sometimes we think when you romanticize the past that these duels that occurred

were things that were allowed or sanctioned. Maybe they were looked down upon, but they weren't

illegal. And in that duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, Burr was actually indicted

for killing Hamilton, but a political favor made sure that the charges were dropped, but he was

indicted for murder.

The other thing that comes to mind when you think about duels are pistols.

And pistols for a long time were the weapon of choice for dueling, although prior to the invention of guns,

swords were used about as much.

Yeah! guns, swords were used about as much. But in 1838, two congressmen made the peculiar decision to use rifles, and the rest is relatively embarrassing history.

The code duelo was the kind of set of rules, was the practice of dueling and honor that

was created in the 1770s that was overseas.

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