# Firing squads **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 18, 2014, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firing-squads/679171 "2014-01-18T23:13:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firing-squads/679171/61 "2014-01-21T03:10:34Z")
Is there still underground nuke testing? Because I’ve always thought that once a year, you could herd all the condemned to a room directly adjacent to the bomb. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firing-squads/679171/62 "2014-01-21T03:28:26Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > Actually, I am not that interested in the death penalty nor the methods of such. Especially not the methods. > That no US company manufactures the cocktail in no way prevents them from doing so. I would assume that Chinese policies can be altered with the right inducement. EU laws are unimportant if they were sourced outside the EU ( and emphasizes the point that ethics are driven by government rather than the sellers’ hearts — after all they sold it before ). US drug regulations, although no doubt determined not to cause harm to those they are about to execute, have not prevented the importation from Europe, so why should they prevent importation from other places if the chemicals are equally well-prepared ? > Here’s a **[link](http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/will-the-eu-kill-americas-death-penalty)** on the EU, the drugs, and the existential crisis facing the American Execution Industry. > _… sodium thiopental, which served to kill the pain, was used as part of a three-drug lethal injection cocktail in all but two states with the death penalty. Pancurium bromide paralyzed the inmate. Potassium chloride stopped the heart._ I am confused. Are you responding to me? I was not posting on the death penalty, or the methods, in general, in my two previous posts. I was posting on one specific issue, the availability of one of the approved drugs. I know about this. I’ve been following the story for … nearly two years, I believe. A U.S. drug manufacturer cannot decide to produce and distribute a drug in short order; an accelerated ANDA is possible only when public health is at risk, and one person currently in prison is not, as far as I know, considered an immanent risk to public health. There was one European manufacturer of the drug, which has significant therapeutic usage, and that company will not sell it for use in execution. The company was prepared to refuse to sell it to all U.S. distributors after one state obtain some illegally and would not return it. The company had to challenge the FDA to enforce U.S. regulations on the grounds the actual shipment of drug was originally distributed for clinical trials. If I remember correctly, the shipment was shipped to an Italian distributor for shipment to an African country for clinical trials, and ended up be shipped to a U.S. state prison for use in execution. This should have been a major embarrassment, but the U.S. press did not run with it. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firing-squads/679171/63 "2014-01-21T04:03:40Z")
> [@yoyodyne](#): > > The victim has already been killed by the condemned, likely with no regard to pain. And this is relevant how? Note the US constitution ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Also, from everything I’ve read - nitrogen asphyxiation is the way to go. I imagine some states still have their gas chambers, so I’d think modifying one of those to pump out air and pump in nitrogen would be pretty easy to set up. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firing-squads/679171/64 "2014-01-21T04:37:44Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > China has deliberately modeled executions on the American mode. > > China executes a fair number, and the 3-drug cocktail could be made to a surplus for overseas sale to either national governments or sociopaths. A little refresher reading even indicates that China is able to successfully recover organs from prisoners executed via their form of lethal injection—save for the heart, which is damaged by the poison. Incidentally, as I recall, for Chinese firing-squad executions, they actually used a special hollowpoint [7.62x39 round](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.62%C3%9739mm), fired from—judging from the photos of the execution I saw—about three feet away, at the back of the skull. Basically everything above the bridge of the nose was obliterated. > [@Folacin](#): > > Also, from everything I’ve read - nitrogen asphyxiation is the way to go. I imagine some states still have their gas chambers, so I’d think modifying one of those to pump out air and pump in nitrogen would be pretty easy to set up. Would you even need the chamber? A heavy duty face mask ought to do it, really. Oh! Or one of those [big, old-fashioned diving helmets](http://www.prices4antiques.com/item_images/medium/24/85/33-1.jpg). Metal. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firing-squads/679171/65 "2014-01-21T11:35:56Z")
You don’t even need a gas - a vacuum can also induce hypoxia. Painlessly too, I think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firing-squads/679171.md?page=3)