Quote:
Originally posted by valkyrie
If the people doing the shooting are willing to volunteer to do it, why bother with having multiple shooters with blanks? If you don't have a problem shooting somebody, why do you need to be in denial of being the one who actually killed the person?
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Through the many years of the use of the firing squad, people tended to notice that over time the shooters would lose their edge and eventually suffer remorse over killing the condemned; the Russians (back in the Stalinist days) were notorious in that they were quite willing to replace worn-out firing squad members by making them the condemned.
The recoil of firing blank and live ammunition is almost indistinguishable. Only if you actually look at the ground and see the spent casing could you tell the difference, depending on how the blank was manufactured.
Interesting how the protocol for a military firing squad works; in early days, the condemned actually issued the order to fire; a blindfold was sometimes issued, but some would actually refuse it.
An excellent description is at
http://www.urbanlegends.com/death/fi..._protocol.html .
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