South Carolina executed a guy today with a firing squad

[brothir]

Agreed. The rapid loss of blood pressure would render you unconscious almost instantly.

Depends entirely on the caliber used. Elephant cartridges and above basically vaporize the heart, and likely knock you unconscious with the impact alone. Something like a .22 LR though? Oof.

 

[brothir]

The article says they used .30 cartridges but not what type. I'm guessing .30 carbine. Unlikely to be .30-30. Either way, the caliber is too small, and .30 carbine is unimpressive in terms of raw energy. Should've used something like the .600 Nitro.

 

[Crazy Source]

Depends entirely on the caliber used. Elephant cartridges and above basically vaporize the heart, and likely knock you unconscious with the impact alone. Something like a .22 LR though? Oof.

Of course. I would imagine they are using a military round. .308 Win preferably. I don't think they would bring squirrel guns. .600 Nitro, lol. One had a .375 H&H, one a .460 Weatherby, and the other a .458 Win.....subject was vaporized.

 

[brothir]

And I was likely wrong with my earlier post, in that it is in all likelihood a .30-30 rather than a .30 carbine. Much better energy in the .30-30, though the caliber is still somewhat small.

 

[TheGreatA]

Always felt like if you're going to shoot a man, you should atleast give them the courtesy of looking them right in the eyes. However, it seems most firing squads had atleast 1 person randomly fire a blank so no one would know if they actually fired the killing shot or not. Made it "easier" on their conscience. Personally though I don't feel like taking a life should ever be made easy on the executioner, even when it's the life of a complete bastard.

 

[brothir]

Of course. I would imagine they are using a military round. .308 Win preferably. I don't think they would bring squirrel guns. .600 Nitro, lol. One had a .375 H&H, one a .460 Weatherby, and the other a .458 Win.....subject was vaporized.

I'm actually thinking it was a .30-30, that is if the article didn't just truncate something like .308W to ".30 caliber". Can't expect ballistics knowledge and accuracy from regular articles, so all bets are off, really. And it's a matter of how sure you want to be there is absolutely no suffering. Many, many rounds have the capability to cause catastrophic rupturing of the heart, but guaranteeing instant unconsciousness is a more narrow range.

Then you factor in presumed accuracy, where it's not guaranteed the shooters will hit the heart dead on, so you have to maybe use a more powerful cartridge to ensure that even semi-glancing hits will guarantee unconsciousness, etc. There's a lot that goes into it the stricter you want to be.

 

[BluntForceTrama]

I’m sure there were perks to volunteering for this but yea that’s psycho

 

[Crazy Source]

I'm actually thinking it was a .30-30, that is if the article didn't just truncate something like .308W to ".30 caliber". Can't expect ballistics knowledge and accuracy from regular articles, so all bets are off, really. And it's a matter of how sure you want to be there is absolutely no suffering. Many, many rounds have the capability to cause catastrophic rupturing of the heart, but guaranteeing instant unconsciousness is a more narrow range.

Then you factor in presumed accuracy, where it's not guaranteed the shooters will hit the heart dead on, so you have to maybe use a more powerful cartridge to ensure that even semi-glancing hits will guarantee unconsciousness, etc. There's a lot that goes into it the stricter you want to be.

I just glanced over the article at first, so forgive me. I seriously doubt it was a 30-30 Win. However, it is S.C. and some yahoo walking in with a lever-action thutty-thutty would not be the that crazy. I am guessing it's either a .308 or a .30 carbine (which is a bit small, but capable of doing the job).

Maybe @Stoic1 has some insight?

 

[brothir]

I just glanced over the article at first, so forgive me. I seriously doubt it was a 30-30 Win. However, it is S.C. and some yahoo walking in with a lever-action thutty-thutty would not be the that crazy. I am guessing it's either a .308 or a .30 carbine (which is a bit small, but capable of doing the job).

Maybe @Stoic1 has some insight?

The more I think, the more I find it likely that the article is just trolling with describing the .308 W as a ".30 caliber" cartridge, which is accurate if you're going by the land diameter, which no one does. So, you're likely right, and I was giving the article too much credence.

 

[Stoic1]

I just glanced over the article at first, so forgive me. I seriously doubt it was a 30-30 Win. However, it is S.C. and some yahoo walking in with a lever-action thutty-thutty would not be the that crazy. I am guessing it's either a .308 or a .30 carbine (which is a bit small, but capable of doing the job).

Maybe @Stoic1 has some insight?

It was a .308 expanding hollow point that they used. NATO equivalent to 7.62x51. That is about 2700fps. Those bullets should have blown a fist sized hole through his back.

Those were a painful 15 seconds that he lived.

 

[Crazy Source]

The more I think, the more I find it likely that the article is just trolling with describing the .308 W as a ".30 caliber" cartridge, which is accurate if you're going by the land diameter, which no one does. So, you're likely right, and I was giving the article too much credence.

Regardless, it's nice to talk to someone that knows firearms/different rounds. It was something my father shared with me.

Edit-Thank you @Stoic1 for the sobering play-by-play.

 

[brothir]

It was a .308 expanding hollow point that they used. NATO equivalent to 7.62x51. That is about 2700fps. Those bullets should have blown a fist sized hole through his back.

Those were a painful 15 seconds that he lived.

Regardless, it's nice to talk to someone that knows firearms/different rounds. It was something my father shared with me.

Edit-Thank you @Stoic1 for the sobering play-by-play.

Well, it's a question of consciousness. He may have lived, but whether he was conscious and in pain is a different question. Entirely possible: ensuring instant unconsciousness with a shot to the torso is tricky. A more humane choice would maybe have been a .338 Winchester Mag.

 

[evergreenrider]

Gotta be much cheaper than the chair or "drug cocktail" injection. Why not?

 

[Crazy Source]

Well, it's a question of consciousness. He may have lived, but whether he was conscious and in pain is a different question. Entirely possible: ensuring instant unconsciousness with a shot to the torso is tricky. A more humane choice would maybe have been a .338 Winchester Mag.

A more human choice would be seasoned marksmen that can explode the man's heart with a well-placed shot. That did not happen.

 

[Crazy Source]

Gotta be much cheaper than the chair or "drug cocktail" injection. Why not?

As I posted earlier, pets get put down humanely with a pentobarbital shot that costs a few bucks. The state is making it too complicated. It's not hard to kill a person.

 

[evergreenrider]

As I posted earlier, pets get put down humanely with a pentobarbital shot that costs a few bucks. The state is making it too complicated. It's not hard to kill a person.

I understand the ethical dilemma a medically trained professional has. But the selective use of the oath they swore to uphold is also an ongoing issue.

 

[brothir]

A more human choice would be seasoned marksmen that can explode the man's heart with a well-placed shot. That did not happen.

That's critical too, of course. I'm more interested in the technical side of it, as "just shoot better" is kind of hard to solve on a systemic level. The cartridge choice decides everything: you need something with enough blunt force to ensure almost instant unconsciousness from the blow alone, and for that you need a reasonably large cartridge. I suspect the .308 W is underpowered for that, and if Stoic is right, it was.

 

[Stoic1]

I'd have shot him in the dick and said oooops.

 

[brothir]

As I posted earlier, pets get put down humanely with a pentobarbital shot that costs a few bucks. The state is making it too complicated. It's not hard to kill a person.

So much of the history of capital punishment is about decorum, which we're burdened with even today. It's a grim topic, but very useful for arriving at some philosophical core truths that surprisingly chain into engineering as a human endeavour.

 

[Crazy Source]

I understand the ethical dilemma a medically trained professional has. But the selective use of the oath they swore to uphold is also an ongoing issue.

No argument there. I don't feel the state should have the right to kill people, yet here we are. I am just talking about implementing death in the quickest and painless way.