How Firing Squads Have Worked Throughout History

A traditional firing squad is a basic set up, one you've surely seen in movies, paintings, or historical photographs. The condemned stands before a surface from which bullets won't ricochet ( a wall, a hill, a mound, sandbags), is sometimes tied to a post or restrained in another way, is more often than not blindfolded, and faces a line of armed men or women who mow the condemned down in a fusillade of lead. If the condemned doesn't die in the initial hail of bullets, the commanding officer of the squad may shoot him or her in the head with a pistol. 

Firing squads typically use rifles, though in some cases pistols have been used. All members of a firing squad are ordered to fire simultaneously, to avoid singling out a shooter as the one who fired the fatal shot. The firing squad generally targets the chest, both to avoid unnecessary damage to the head and face (for burial purposes), and because the chest is a larger, easier target than the head. In some places, there's a tradition of carrying out execution by firing squad at dawn, hence the phrase "shot at dawn."

The hood worn by prisoners during execution by firing squad serves two primary purposes. It dehumanizes the condemned, making it easier for the firing squad to perform its function without an emotional response. The target on the chest further reinforces the notion that the firing squad isn't killing a human being, but merely aiming at a target and firing. Secondly, it prevents the condemned from witnessing his or her own death, saving the individual, in his or her final moments, from looking into the faces and down the barrels of the guns that will bring about imminent demise. However, it's not unheard of for a prisoner to request to go without a hood or blindfold; to look death in the face. 

Sure, there are hangings and beheadings in the annals of military executions, but firing squads have been the go-to method of dispatching soldiers for a few centuries, chiefly for symbolic and disciplinary reasons. Using a firing squad makes punishment a communal event. The offender is killed by his or her peers, using weapons the soldiers all use in combat. It also reinforces the idea of the community (the firing squad) over and against the individual (the offender). 

Even if executing a soldier for desertion or treason, you might get a little emotional when pulling the trigger. After all, you might be killing someone with whom you served, whose family you know well. Or maybe you don’t want to live with the guilt of killing an unarmed man. Hence the custom of at least one member of a firing squad receiving a gun loaded with blanks. No one on the squad knows which gun is loaded with blanks, so it's impossible to know who fired the shot that killed the condemned. 

While it may take only one bullet to kill a man, firing squads use several to get the job done. Aside from the symbolic nature of the act (a lone dissenter against the orderly group), using a group of executioners ensures there will be enough hits to finish the job. But how many is enough?

Well, it depends. In the past, firing squads have had as many as a dozen members, but a 2004 execution in Utah employed only five. The reason for this may come down to the accuracy of modern weapons. The Utah executioners used .30 Winchester rifles, bound to hit their mark more easily than a musket. In the picture above, there are seven men (plus an officer) in the squad that executed Emperor Don Maximiliano I in Mexico.

In the 21st century, firing squads are easier to assemble than finding someone to administer lethal injection. In 2006, 298 anesthesiologists turned down the job of giving a lethal injection which goes against the Hippocratic Oath. There are plenty of people in the world, on the other hand, eager to volunteer to blow someone away. Despite the potential psychological damage of murdering someone, Utah State Representative Paul Ray (the only state using firing squads for the death penalty in 2016) has said, "There are always more volunteers than spots on the squad."

In the instance of a military death by firing squad, members are conscripted from ranks.