I’ve never understood the need for a firing squad in the first place. Secure the prisoner, have someone step up behind him and place the barrel of a .38 right at the base of the skull where the spinal cord comes in, pull the trigger and you’re done. Painless and humane; the prisoner doesn’t feel a thing because the nerves and brain are destroyed immediately.
I thought it depended on what your crime was; weren’t some criminals hanged for particularly dishonorable actions?
And yes, I’d rather be shot by a firing squad than lethally injected or hanged. I’ve read enough horrifying stuff about lethal injections and botched hangings to think that several bullets in my chest would at least be quick, if not painful.
My recollection is that Grover Cleveland, while governor of New York, personally pulled the lever for whatever execution method was in use at the time, because he thought it inappropriate to burden a subordinate with that duty.
That’s the way they do it in China. (Although I think they use a rifle rather than a pistol.)
Rumor is they send the condemned man’s family a bill for the cost of the bullet.
If they are all shooting at the same time, couldn’t they just use a crooked rifle or mis-sight one of them so it will miss? That way they can load them all with live ammo, and because everyone is shooting at once, no one will know who missed. This would work even easier if the guns were pre-set in position and the shooters were not looking at the condemned.
I wouldn’t know if “Mine missed anyway” is more or less comforting than “mine didn’t have a real bullet in it anyway.”
I’ve never shot a real gun before, though.