Death by firing squad...

[Sea Skimmer]

I obviously cannot speak from experience, but a firing squad consists of several marksmen, firing high-caliber bullets into your chest. Those bullets would make one heck of a mess out of your chest cavity, shredding your heart and key blood vessels, thus dropping your blood pressure quick, fast, and in a hurry. That immediate drop in blood pressure would quite quickly induce unconsciousness, so you'd probably not feel much in the way of pain. The worry is that someone misses, but that's probably a minor risk.

The range is perhaps ten meters. They'd have to intentionally miss.

[Saurencaerthai]

quote]...Unless he aims for your groin.

There required to aim for the chest around the heart. I'd take the firing squad.

Ack... why the hell don't they shoot the head? You'd still be alive and possibly conscious for a bit after getting hit in the chest/heart area, getting hit in the head would actually ensure instant death.

Untrue. If the bullet does not hit the right part of the brain, it is very possible for someone to keep on living after the shot is fired. There even is a doccumented case of a man who had a bar go through part of his head as the result of an explosion and live a good number of years after it.

[Jadeite]

I would take the firing squad.

[jezrianna]

I can't figure the libs who say the firing squad is 'cruel and unusual'. Dead is dead, and once it's over, it doesn't really matter how it happened.

[Sea Skimmer]

Untrue. If the bullet does not hit the right part of the brain, it is very possible for someone to keep on living after the shot is fired. There even is a doccumented case of a man who had a bar go through part of his head as the result of an explosion and live a good number of years after it.

That bar however went through his head vertically, entering under the chin and only striking the frontal lobes.

[Saurencaerthai]

Untrue. If the bullet does not hit the right part of the brain, it is very possible for someone to keep on living after the shot is fired. There even is a doccumented case of a man who had a bar go through part of his head as the result of an explosion and live a good number of years after it.

That bar however went through his head vertically, entering under the chin and only striking the frontal lobes.

Still, unless you're doing it short range (such as the back of the neck proceedure done in China) you run the risk of 1. Not hitting the lower medula. 2. Missing the head alltogether. If you're dealing with a firing squad, the heart is a far more ideal place to aim for, as it will rupture the heart, major arteries, and possibly the lungs resulting in a definate death.

In reguard to pain, from what I've read, the initial feeling is as if one has been punched and the pain comes later, and chances are that the victim doesn't survive long enough to feel that pain.

[Atavarius]

There even is a documented case of a man who had a bar go through part of his head as the result of an explosion and live a good number of years after it.

The man to whom i think you are referring is Phineas Gage. In 1848 Gage was packing blasting powder into a hole with a 3.5 foot tamping iron when it went off. The rod passed through his maxilla, orbit, and the frontal lobe of his brain before emerging from the skull and landing 50 ft. away. The Doctor that treated him was able to stick his index finger all the way into Gage's wound. After that, he was thought of as a different person. THe brain damage caused noticeable change's in Gage's attitude, and he died 12 years after the incident. Computer analysis of the wound revealed that Gage suffered damage to the ventromedial region of both frontal lobes. This was one of the first cases in which social behavior was directyl linked to the brain, which at the time scientists were afraid to analyze due to religious and ethical pressure.

Normally the shooters aim at the chest, since this is easier to hit than the head. A firing squad aiming at the head produces the same type of wounds as those produced by a single bullet, but bullets fired at the chest rupture the heart, large blood vessels, and lungs so that the condemned person dies of hemorrhage and shock. It was not unusual in earlier times for the officer in charge of the firing squad to have to give the prisoner a "coup de grace" - a pistol shot to the head to finish them off after the initial volley failed to kill them.

A bullet produces a cavity which has a volume many times that of the bullet. Cavitation is caused by the heat dissipated when the impact of the bullet boils the water and volatile fats in the tissue which it strikes. According to Dr. Le Garde, in his book "Gunshot Injuries", it is proved both in theory and by experimentation, that cavitation is caused by the transfer of the momentum from the fast moving bullet to the tissue which is mostly comprised of incompressible liquid.
Persons hit by bullets feel as if they have been punched - pain comes later if the victim survives long enough to feel it.

When all goes well shooting can provide a quick death but there are many recorded instances of it failing to kill the condemned person immediately. There are also instances of people surviving their execution. It would seem that one of the problems of the firing squad is that it is, typically, composed of volunteers rather than professional executioners and it is a task that many people would not find easy to perform when the time comes to actually squeeze the trigger.

Taken from http://www.geocities.com/trctl11/shooting.html



*edit: to remove URL which i put twice by mistake.

[Steven Snyder]

Either way...

1. You will be scared.
2. You will feel pain.
3. You will die.

I would prefer to die on my feet facing my death with some degree of bravery than be strapped down to die like a coward.

[Saurencaerthai]

There even is a documented case of a man who had a bar go through part of his head as the result of an explosion and live a good number of years after it.

The man to whom i think you are referring is Phineas Gage. In 1848 Gage was packing blasting powder into a hole with a 3.5 foot tamping iron when it went off. The rod passed through his maxilla, orbit, and the frontal lobe of his brain before emerging from the skull and landing 50 ft. away. The Doctor that treated him was able to stick his index finger all the way into Gage's wound. After that, he was thought of as a different person. THe brain damage caused noticeable change's in Gage's attitude, and he died 12 years after the incident. Computer analysis of the wound revealed that Gage suffered damage to the ventromedial region of both frontal lobes. This was one of the first cases in which social behavior was directyl linked to the brain, which at the time scientists were afraid to analyze due to religious and ethical pressure.

Normally the shooters aim at the chest, since this is easier to hit than the head. A firing squad aiming at the head produces the same type of wounds as those produced by a single bullet, but bullets fired at the chest rupture the heart, large blood vessels, and lungs so that the condemned person dies of hemorrhage and shock. It was not unusual in earlier times for the officer in charge of the firing squad to have to give the prisoner a "coup de grace" - a pistol shot to the head to finish them off after the initial volley failed to kill them.

A bullet produces a cavity which has a volume many times that of the bullet. Cavitation is caused by the heat dissipated when the impact of the bullet boils the water and volatile fats in the tissue which it strikes. According to Dr. Le Garde, in his book "Gunshot Injuries", it is proved both in theory and by experimentation, that cavitation is caused by the transfer of the momentum from the fast moving bullet to the tissue which is mostly comprised of incompressible liquid.
Persons hit by bullets feel as if they have been punched - pain comes later if the victim survives long enough to feel it.

When all goes well shooting can provide a quick death but there are many recorded instances of it failing to kill the condemned person immediately. There are also instances of people surviving their execution. It would seem that one of the problems of the firing squad is that it is, typically, composed of volunteers rather than professional executioners and it is a task that many people would not find easy to perform when the time comes to actually squeeze the trigger.

Taken from http://www.geocities.com/trctl11/shooting.html



*edit: to remove URL which i put twice by mistake.

Correct on both accounts.

[Gandalf]

I personally would rather be shot, that way I die a little more honorably.

[Companion Cube]

I'd prefer the firing squad. Both ways will kill me, but a firing squad would be more dignified.

[Kenny_10_Bellys]

I'd prefer they use cruel and unusual punishments, perhaps selected by Vanna White spinning a wheel of misfortune and they then televise it. I think it would make a better deterrent if people quite visibly saw these sick bastards killed in the style of a Bond villan. I think the shark/pirhana pool would be my favourite, it has class written all over it. Stuck in a car and dropped into a compactor would be another good one, ideal for rapists and kiddy murderers.

As for my own death, I choose drunk, aged 103 in a harem.

[Grand Admiral Ancaris]

Untrue. If the bullet does not hit the right part of the brain, it is very possible for someone to keep on living after the shot is fired. There even is a doccumented case of a man who had a bar go through part of his head as the result of an explosion and live a good number of years after it.

I believe there is also a man who (literally) had half his head blown away when he spooked his boss one night. His Boss thought he was a robber and shot him with a 375 point blank I think. The majority (if not all) of the right side of his brain had to be removed, leaving him with just the left side.

Amazingly, the man lived through the incident, and was even coherent. He did suffer from some paralysis though (unsuprisingly).

From what I remember. They made a mold of the empty side of his head and then filled it with something to help balance out the weight of his head and to also allow them to rebuild surface of the skull so he didn't have to walk around with the gaping hole there.

Is anyone else familiar with this incident (hopefully in better detail than I)??? Or Was this simply a wild dream of mine that I've mistaken for reality??

[Grand Admiral Ancaris]

I would prefer the firing squad. I think it's cheaper, and I despise needles.

[Sea Skimmer]

I'd prefer they use cruel and unusual punishments, perhaps selected by Vanna White spinning a wheel of misfortune and they then televise it. I think it would make a better deterrent if people quite visibly saw these sick bastards killed in the style of a Bond villan. I think the shark/pirhana pool would be my favourite, it has class written all over it. Stuck in a car and dropped into a compactor would be another good one, ideal for rapists and kiddy murderers.

As for my own death, I choose drunk, aged 103 in a harem.

Into the 1920's the US was hanging men in public sqaures, but then the slid to the current system began. Rather then a wheel we could use a phone in system and charge 95 cents per call.

[Uraniun235]

As a man about to be executed I'd probably prefer the lead, though as an executioner I'd prefer the injection.