Legislation introduced Friday by the Idaho Sheriff’s Association would repeal a law that dates back to the 1860s and deals with jurisdiction and duels. “Every year the Sheriffs Association tasks me with trying to find obscure laws, and I think I’ve found some good ones this year,” lobbyist Mike Kane told the House Judiciary Committee. In addition to the dueling statute, Kane proposed legislation to repeal outdated laws about prisoner transfers in cases of pestilence. Kane told the committee, “I know of no duels that have occurred.” The pestilence law, he said, “Has not, frankly, been enforced, to my knowledge, ever.” It refers to a preceding section of Idaho Code, but “there is none,” Kane said. “That was repealed three years ago.”

AP reporter Ryan Struyk traced down the origin of the dueling law – passed during Idaho’s very first territorial legislature in 1864 – and has a full report here.