# Trump trying to rush approval for firing squads for federal executions **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 28, 2020, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626 "2020-11-28T00:06:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/61 "2020-12-01T15:06:31Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > True, but if a given squad member wants to believe he wasn’t the one to deliver the fatal shot this makes it easier. Also nobody _outside_ the squad is going to know for certain. - To an observer in the right spot, muzzle rise will be a giveaway. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/62 "2020-12-01T15:19:06Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’ve always been partial to the guillotine myself. Really. Fast, efficient. I doubt you could both it if you tried. But it would still hurt a lot. You wouldn’t be able to feel the rest of your body after it’s separated from your head, but your severed neck stump wound must hurt horrifically during the 20 seconds or so that your head+brain is still conscious. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/63 "2020-12-01T18:15:44Z")
You might be interested in reading this Reddit thread. Shows the bizarre effects of CO poisoning. There’s a link to a follow-up thread a few posts down. That Reddit post essentially saved the OP’s life. > **[r/legaladvice - \[MA\] Post-it notes left in apartment.](https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/34l7vo/ma_postit_notes_left_in_apartment/)** > > 2,859 votes and 565 comments so far on Reddit ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/64 "2020-12-01T19:51:44Z")
in the past some hangings were slow, they wanted the guy to suffer Don’t know if that still happens. In some fast hanging cases the head is torn off the body. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/65 "2020-12-01T20:14:49Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I think it’s because it looks too much like Nazi Germany, personally. Didn’t the Germans use Guillotines? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/66 "2020-12-01T20:19:02Z")
I can’t wait for the tell-all books or whatever vetted truth comes out so we can hear about how Danald Tramp floated the idea of public gallows or guillotines and somehow they arrived at firing squads as a compromise. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/67 "2020-12-01T20:51:36Z")
yes Nazis used the guillotine ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/68 "2020-12-02T15:09:05Z")
They did. I highly recommend this movie, about the young, incredibly brave anti-Nazi student Sophie Scholl, who was beheaded after her show trial. > **[Sophie Scholl – The Final Days](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Scholl_%E2%80%93_The_Final_Days)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Sophie Scholl – The Final Days (German: Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage) is a 2005 German historical drama film directed by Marc Rothemund and written by Fred Breinersdorfer. It is about the last days in the life of Sophie Scholl, a 21-year-old member of the anti-Nazi non-violent student resistance group the White Rose, part of the German Resistance movement. She was found guilty of high treason by the People’s Court and executed the same day, 22... ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/69 "2020-12-03T01:16:49Z")
Article on Richard Bernard Moore, facing execution in South Carolina, but they don’t have any drugs. He has to choose if he wants to be executed by unknown drugs or be electrocuted. > **[Execution date set for South Carolina inmate but lethal injection drugs not...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/20/us/execution-date-set-for-inmate-but-drugs-unavailable/?hpt=ob_blogfooterold)** > > South Carolina is set to execute a man, but it does not have the lethal injection drugs to do so. Now the inmate has to decide whether he wishes to die by electrocution or lethal injection by Friday. ---
**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:** [December 6, 2020, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/70 "2020-12-06T05:12:32Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > But it would still hurt a lot. You wouldn’t be able to feel the rest of your body after it’s separated from your head, but your severed neck stump wound must hurt horrifically during the 20 seconds or so that your head+brain is still conscious. Meh. You’d get over it. But I’m not convinced it would hurt at all. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/71 "2020-12-06T16:19:50Z")
Your severed head would quickly lose consciousness due to massive blood loss and oxygen deprivation - within seconds. But even before you lose consciousness, you’d likely lose sensations of pain as nerves would no longer send signals to the brain. In the moments of remaining consciousness, it’s possible that you might be shocked or horrified at the realization that your head has permanently separated from your body and that death is inevitable - that I could see. But you’d be unconscious and lose that awareness within a matter of seconds at the most. Witnesses might report seeing your eyes and mouth twitch moments after you’ve lost consciousness, but that, too, would cease pretty quickly. Psychologically, execution in any form would be terrifying and a form of cruelty in its own right, but physically, the pain would be relatively brief. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/72 "2020-12-06T18:27:17Z")
I think the suffering caused by pain pales in comparison to the suffering caused by the anticipation of impending non-existence. The fact that executions have become an hours long rite involving a last meal, spiritual advice, a long walk to the execution chamber, last words, witnesses, etc. proves that the state really doesn’t care about how cruel the process is. A less cruel society wouldn’t even notify the condemned when the last appeal was exhausted and just smother them in their sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/73 "2020-12-06T18:43:09Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > The fact that executions have become an hours long rite a decades-long rite, more like. ---
**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:** [December 6, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/74 "2020-12-06T20:12:41Z")
Whatever method is used, if someone is so egregious that you feel you just have to kill them, then here is my proposal: Execute only half of them, the other half get life with no parole. But the prisoners do not know who is which. The condemned don’t know they are in the condemned half until the morning someone comes for them. This ratchets up the stress to a level appropriate for someone who is, say, a Charles Manson or Jeffrey Dahmer. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/75 "2020-12-06T20:22:23Z")
when Sir Walter Raleigh lost his head he said “Strike man!” and “this is sharp medicine for all ills” and he mentioned he felt cold and was shivering so he wanted it to be done fast since he did not want people to think he was scared. He got his wish ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/76 "2020-12-07T10:31:07Z")
You are conflating him with [King Charles I.](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=r5MPAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA249&lpg=PA249&dq=%22if+i+am+seen+to++shiver%22&source=bl&ots=oS2W5uYtbW&sig=ACfU3U2zkKmlXTenapX_-9mn_UtJsKF3cA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiKzKnb07vtAhVEiVwKHVD_AakQ6AEwAHoECAIQAg#v=onepage&q=%22if%20i%20am%20seen%20to%20%20shiver%22&f=false) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/77 "2020-12-07T21:52:21Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > > [@alphaboi867](#): > > > > Personally if I were to be executed I’d want the guillotine, if for no other reason than to try and find out for myself if there’s any conscious thought or awareness after separation. - > > I’m betting you’ll keep that to yourself, right? Yeah, keep it under your hat. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2020, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/78 "2020-12-09T05:07:21Z")
For a few seconds, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/79 "2020-12-11T00:27:50Z")
Wondering if a good execution for 45 Cents would be to jaunt him. Considering his narcissism, though, he might be simply sad when he’s brought out of it, shrugs, and could probably use a good McDonald’s maow-down… ETA - or perhaps, with just himself and no adoring morons to feed that narcissism, maybe not? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626/80 "2020-12-11T00:40:47Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Focusing on physical pain is IMO a bit of a red herring here. There’s no shortage of mental pain during the whole lead up to the final ceremony. That would apply to any and all forms of execution, though. It thus isn’t useful for finding the most humane way to execute or the way that is as painless as the accepted drugs. I never argued that I think execution is actually a good thing. I started from the position that these executions would already be allowed if the drugs were available. I actually am against the death penalty as I don’t think they deter crime any more than less morally fraught alternatives. Heck, I think the whole prison system needs an overhaul to become more about rehabilitation. My argument is just why I don’t think firing squads work, and why I don’t find the “we can’t test the drugs” excuse to be valid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-trying-to-rush-approval-for-firing-squads-for-federal-executions/926626.md?page=5)