why do firing squads load all the rifles with live rounds save one, which they load with a blank?
For the same reason they have two people “pushing the button” so that you can always say “I didn’t do it”.
What Ed Said. 
It’s thought to be psychologically easier on the executioner(s) to have that “out”: “Well, I don’t know that it was me who killed him.” Never having killed anyone (to my knowledge :eek: ), I can’t really say anything authoritative. However, it makes some degree of sense to me.
I could have sworn this has been discussed before.
In any case, whoever was firing the blank would know who he is, as there would be little or no recoil. Recoil is the force that is “equal and opposite” to the force that is moving the projectile down the barrel.
Johnny, I’m not certain about that. If the rifle is charged with propellant, just no bullet, then it would be expelling the gases quickly. Never having fired blanks to make a comparison, I cannot say. You may be correct.
There is still recoil with a blank, since there is still a projectile. A blank is just a projectile, such as paper that will have its momentum very quickly overcome by the air friction it is passing through, so that it dangerous over distance. On the other hand, if you load a full charge blank and put the muzzle against your head, there is a damn good chance you hurt, or even kill your self. Most blanks come in 1/4 and 1/2 of the normal charge of the load, to reduce this danger, and lessen the sound. Now I don’t know if the details of telling the recoil of a blank from the recoil of a real bullet, and its possible a guy well aquianted with his weapon will be able to tell.
I’ve fired 5.56mm and 7.62mm military blanks, and .38 movie blanks. There was noticably less, or zero, recoil. In fact, if there weren’t a blank firing adapter in the AR-15 I was firing, the action would not have cycled.
I’ve heard (from a teacher, possibly) that death by firing squad can be particularly painful because the executionors purposely don’t try to kill you because they don’t want it on their heads. No cite. Any truth to this?
Based on my very vague memory of Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song, I think the standard method of shooting someone in a firing squad is to aim for the heart. Maybe that’s just because a bullet to the head is messy business while a well aimed bullet to the chest makes for a neater wound. The chest is also a bigger target…even if the ultimate target, the heart, is smaller than the top of the head.
I have also seen wartime documentary footage that suggests that squads shoot the chest, not the head, but that could have been staged stuff.
However, I would imagine that unless the aim of at least one of the squad members is perfect, death by bullet is likely not particularly instantaneous.
Sure, firing squads aim for the heart. But that’s not the end of it; then there’s the coup de grace (literally, “stroke of grace,” but really stroke of mercy), the part of the execution meant to finish up a sloppy job by squeamish or poor-aiming shooters.
Traditionally, after the riflemen have had at it, the officer in charge of the execution (the “ready, aim, fire!” guy) takes his revolver and puts it to the head of the (hopefully, already-dead) prisoner and puts him out of his misery for good with one bullet behind the ear.
The WWI movie Paths of Glory makes good use of this detail as a minor plot device. I recommend it.
I suppose there may be many kinds of blanks. I have shot blanks with a 7.62 military rifle and there was no recoil to speak of and the mechanism did not cycle (had to do it manually). But I guess there could be blanks that had enough mass to produce some recoil but would disintegrate shortly after leaving the barrel.
FWIW, the 7.62mm blanks I used had a cardboard disc to hold the powder in. The 5.56mm (military), .38 plastic (movie) and the 9mm metal (movie – I forgot these last time) had crimped ends. Oh yeah, I’ve fired 7.92mm (8mm Mauser) blanks that were crimped. None of these had any felt recoil. I’ve seen “blanks” with light wooden bullets in them, but I haven’t fired them. The wooden bullets are supposed to disintegrate immediately upon leaving the barrel.
As wolfman said, blanks can be very dangerous. There was a TV show back in the late 60s/early 70s called Alias: Smith and Jones. One of the actors playfully put his revolver to his head and pulled the trigger. The blank killed him.
IIRC, Brandon Lee was also killed, although indirectly, with a blank. Real guns used as props (many guns seen on screen are solid fakes that can be dropped without fear of damage – BTW: There was an actor who had one of these and was killed by a cop when he brandished it at a Halloween party) often have dummy rounds in them. Dummy rounds are made by removing the bullet and powder from a round and firing the primer. The bullet is then replaced. This is so you can actually see a bullet when you’re looking head-on at a revolver, or for showing a person chambering a round. Apparently a dummy round still had a live primer. When an actor fired the gun, this “squib round” pushed the bullet into the barrel. When a “full charge” blank (used to produce a dramatic flash on-screen) was fired at Brandon Lee, the propellant had enough power to send the bullet off with nearly the same force as a live round.
So perhaps the purpose is to make it easier to pull the trigger, not to make him feel better after shooting. He can think “I’ll pull the trigger but I may not end up killing him.”
As for “coup de grace” - if they need it, why do they bother with a firing squad in the first place? Is a firing squad more dignified?
scr4, perhaps there is an “official” philosophy behind the coup de grace, but I will venture my theory. The firing squad is an act of justice, retribution and deterrance; the coup de grace is an unrelated act of mercy.
You’re right, Johnny: Does the executioner get that second chance?, from a year ago September.
When Gary Gilmore died in front of a firing squad, every bullet was accounted for, inside the bulleye on his chest.
I don’t think they would use anyone they think would flinch from a clean shot.
I would also think that part of the reason for having a firing squad in the first place is to spread the responsibility for taking a fellow human being’s life around a bit. After all, if you’re going to put someone to death by shooting him, it’s much more straightforward and efficient to just have some guy with a pistol shoot the poor sucker in the back of the head, the way the Commies do it. You’re already got multiple executioners (so no one person has to think “I am the guy who killed Gary Gilmore” (or whoever); giving one of them a blank round is just painting the lily anyway.
You can always tell who fired the blank…he’s the guy whose gun has a little flag sticking out the barrel that says BANG!
Sorry to be a pain, but…
Pete Duel, the star of “Alias Smith and Jones,” actually MEANT to shoot himself. His death was a suicide.
You’re probably thinking of Jon Erik Hexum, former star of the TV series “Voyagers” and “Coverup.” The story goes, he and his catmates had been kept waiting on the set for hours, due to technical difficulties. Just as they were about to film their scene, NEW technical difficulties were found, and Hexum, in mock exasperation, put his prop gun to his head and fired. But at such a close range, even a cotton wad can be a deadly projectile, and his “joke” resulted in his death.
One other thing: at the time that Gary Gilmore was executed, I recall seeing one of the men from the firing squad being interviewed. He was asked if he felt better, knowing that one of the guns contained a blank round, and he answered (calmly but somewhat sadly) that he was sure he DIDN’T have a blank in his gun.
I know VERY little about guns, but this experienced shooter seemed to think it was easy to tell the difference (perhaps from the recoil?) whether he was firing a live round or a blank. So, IF the purpose of giving one shooter a blank round is to ease everybody’s conscience, it doesn’t seem to work.
FWIW, with the two military rifles I’ve fired (H&K G3 and Garand), there was no doubt at all whether you’d fired a blank or a live round.
FWIW, the idea of being handed a loaded rifle (necessary if you want to conceal the blank) sounds strange to me. Normally, a rifleman is 100% responsible for the weapon, including loading it - I, for one, wouldn’t be comfortable being handed a rifle and being told that “Sure, it’s loaded” - then again, I wouldn’t be comfortable with firing at a man tied to a stake.
Sounds like UL to me.
S. Norman