‘HIGH NOON’

Missouri GOP Lawmaker Floats Rule Change to Bring Back Duels

A senator could challenge another to mortal combat if the first’s “honor is impugned.”

Bitter divisions between Republicans in the Missouri Senate culminated in a proposed rule change that would allow senators to settle their differences by challenging each other to a duel.

Missouri’s Senate Democrats posted details of the suggested amendment on X on Wednesday. “If a senator’s honor is impugned by another senator to the point that it is beyond repair and in order for the offended senator to gain satisfaction, such senator may rectify the perceived insult to the senator’s honor by challenging the offending senator to a duel,” the proposal read.

A written challenge would be sent to the offending senator by the offended lawmaker’s “second,” the proposal added. Both parties would then agree to the terms of the duel “including choice of weapons.” “The duel shall take place in the well of the senate at the hour of high noon on the date agreed to by the parties to the duel.”

The proposal was drafted by state Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican in the Missouri Freedom Caucus. The group’s members have been at odds with the Senate’s GOP leadership in recent weeks and have used procedural tactics to put the brakes on routine work. The caucus wants the Senate to immediately debate measures to make initiative petitions more difficult to pass, including one in support of abortion rights.

“Senator Schroer is deeply committed to restoring a sense of honor in the Missouri Senate,” Schroer’s chief of staff, James Murphy, told Newsweek in a statement. “While the idea of a duel may have been suggested in a metaphorical sense, the core message is about fostering respect and reminding members that the words used in a debate may have real consequences.”

Earlier this week, the Senate’s Republican leaders stripped Freedom Caucus members of their committee chairmanships and parking spots, while Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin on Thursday said she “absolutely would” like to expel from the chamber state Sen. Bill Eigel, a vocal member of the caucus, according to the Associated Press.

“The beginning of the 2024 legislative session in the Senate has been nothing short of an embarrassment,” Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden said in a statement. “A chamber designed to be occupied with civil, principled statesmen and women has been overtaken by a small group of swamp creatures who, all too often, remind me more of my children than my colleagues.”

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Dan Ladden-HallBreaking News Editor

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