Thread 17911842

Not that I'm in favor of execution, But countries have long sought a painless and efficient execution method for a humane capital punishment, They've transitioned from electric chairs to gas to hanging and now lethal injections, Desired for the low rate of failure or capability of botching. But why not death by a firearm from a close distance?
It could be entirely efficient, Much easier and cheaper.
The only objection I can think of is that it might have a dehumanization effect on the executioner or it might raise moral concers due to the more personal and direct nature of it but I don't understand how the other methods are any different. On all of them someone is strictly following orders to execute a procedure designed to be lethal for a human.

For reference:
>Since the resumption of capital punishment in the U.S. in 1977, there have been four executions by firing squad. Three of these occurred in Utah and one in South Carolina. The most recent execution by firing squad was in Utah in 2010.

because firing squads are very very cheap

modern day execution methods are approved based on how mind bogglingly expensive they are to build, maintenance, and execute (unavoidable pin)

unfortunately the answer is always 'follow the money'

>>17911852
Why do they have to be firing squads anyway? Like literally, Why not just one person up close? or at least three people?

>>17911842 (OP)
Well, it's very military. It's most often a squad of soldiers that carry out these types of executions. Maybe the decline of military rule in many countries? There has been a general trend towards limiting the military's influence in politics around the world. It's also a thing that happens in revolutionary regimes where there are politicized soldiers, but I'm not sure it was used that often for common criminals. Hanging was a more traditional method.

>>17911861
more people: faster, more reliable. plus it takes a bit more of the responsibility off any one given shooter. Especially when they throw a few blanks into the mix

>>17911842 (OP)
Also see OP's pic: French troops carrying out a field execution (possibly for cowardice / desertion?). Military.

Also hanging is even cheaper because it doesn't cost you any bullets, but that has gone out of fashion in most countries. It's still practiced in some countries. Iran hangs people in public, but obviously this looks barbaric to many.

>>17911885
IMAGINE going to your execution in these cheap plastic footwear NGMI.

>>17911876
Read the file name, it was the 1917 French mutinies.

>>17911842 (OP)
It sounds like what you're describing is execution by shooting, which is the broader category firing squads fall into.

In China, Belarus and some post-soviet states they still do executions by one guy with a gun shooting you in the brain stem from behind, which I think is technically the most efficient and painless means of execution. Only long-drop hanging could come close.

>>17911900
I think they even do it during your routine walk, ie its unexpected and it that respect pretty humane

I think it is due to the link in authoritarian regimes. However, if I got to choose my method of execution, I would choose firing squad.

>>17911893
Don't think they had much of a choice anon (RIP)

>>17912083
There's a kind of dignity going out that way. You can be on your feet and maybe even get a cigarette out of the deal. Also you can shout something defiant if you want to:
https://youtu.be/dhJSVOThaA0

>>17911842 (OP)

See >>17911852

Everything has to be a fucking grift now. Instead of just finding a volunteer guard willing to just put a bullet in the back of the fucker's head after he's convicted, instead we have to put them through 6 million goddamn legal appeals (basically none of which have anything to do with his factual guilt) and then hook his ass up to a Rube Goldberg machine after 30 years.

why not just use a guillotine? it would be even cheaper than firing squad since you're not spending money on ammo

>>17911852
BRAVO CAPITALISM

>>17911900
China actually does use lethal injection, they phased out shooting sometime in the 2000s.

Utah uses firing squad.

>>17911885
>>17911866
Hanging has its roots in Germanic human sacrifice rituals, dedicated to the one eyed God *Wothnaz. This is not a joke, you won't find references to "hanging" as a method of execution before the migration era.
In Havamal, Odin hangs himself on the world tree Yggdrasil ("terrifying mount," a kenning for gallows?), impales himself on his own spear Gungnir ("swaying") and hangs for the 9 days and 9 nights (the number 9 is a recurring theme in Norse mythology) refusing food or water, in order to learn the secret of writing with runes.
The motif of hanging prisoners by the neck, especially from trees (oak or ash in particular) is uniquely germanic, and is documented by Roman times by Roman authors. As these tribes spread out and took over Western Europe, they brought with them their legal customs, which included execution by hanging. Even after they converted, they still unconsciously followed the custom of their ancestors in veneration of the mad God.
The motif of hanging wicked men from trees, which are sacred in Germanic religion, is long lasting. During the American civil war, "Oh we'll hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree" was a popular pro-Union song as early as 1861. This means Americans were calling for human sacrifice to Woden as recently as 150 years ago. A "sour apple tree" is used instead of Oak or Ash, because crabapples are not particularly large trees, or because the sour taste of the fruit implies particular insult to the sacrificed. Also notable is the fact that American officers still wear oak leaves as a symbol of rank (Oak leaves are a symbol of Thor, as Oak trees have always been associated with thunder by Indo European peoples).
Even today, many nations all over the globe use hanging as a method of execution, because of influence from European nations. This means that when the Taliban execute political prisoners by hanging, they are unwittingly creating human sacrifice toward a one eyed Germanic God of wisdom.

>>17911842 (OP)
>>17911852
>>17911885
>>17912576

The methods of executions has changed throughout history based on how sad it made the people experiencing it/enacting it. That's actually it.
People don't like death by firing squad because it makes the firing squad sad. People don't like hanging, or electric chairs, because it makes the person throwing the switch sad, and it makes the people witnessing the execution (with some exceptions) sad. Even in ye olde medievale times the executioner was frequently sad, people didn't want to be his friend, and they would do stuff like have their swords engraved begging for God's forgiveness for them, and their victim, and would receive pendants or licenses officiated by the pope/religious whoever's.
The overwhelming majority of the human population (I think it's 86%) doesn't have the mental or emotional fortitude to just flat out kill another person - so much of the work put into executions is creating plausible deniability for the executioner OR finding the 12% cannibal phenotype who doesn't mind.

>>17911842 (OP)
Your reference info isn't correct. A guy with the last name Mahdi was just executed in South Carolina by firing squad very recently.

>>17913112
Don't they hang some maids in the Odyssey?

>>17911842 (OP)
Firing squad has a rather "impromptu" feel to it which makes it feel extralegal

>>17912130
This. If my killers let me go out standing, shouting and smoking they're not so bad after all.