What caliber for firing squad?

[K Frame]

I mean, 30-30 is obviously plenty.  Heck, 223/5.56 would be plenty.  Just seems like .308 would be used because it’s the military battle rifle caliber.

Why replace what you've got, and what works?

[K Frame]

If they already have rifles which are already quite effective why spend the money on new ones just to change calibers?

Yep, exactly.

[WLJ]

There were 3 shooters in the firing squad but only 2 hit neither of which hit the heart.
So one guy flat out missed and the other two were off the mark. More fuel for libs
BTW: Further down they talk about him choosing a firing squad over the chair

BULLETS MISSED THE HEART — SOUTH CAROLINA EXECUTION LABELED ‘BOTCHED’

A South Carolina firing squad failed to strike the heart of convicted cop killer Mikal Mahdi, leaving him conscious for up to 80 seconds in what experts are calling a botched execution.

Mikal Mahdi was shot on April 11 by a three-man squad, but autopsy results revealed only two bullet wounds—neither to the heart.

Pathologists say he bled out in “excruciating” pain.

The state had claimed such deaths would take no more than 15 seconds.

Now lawyers say the state’s firing squad law failed its own test.

The court has yet to respond.

Source: NY Post
Media: @unlimited_ls

https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1920642373622825457

[Northwoods]

Did 1 have a blank?

[WLJ]

Did 1 have a blank?

Thought about that but they don't say

[Ben]

I have no idea how modern firing squads are set up or if there is a set number of shooters from state to state. However, is there some legal reason they couldn't put the executionee in something like a dentist's chair that raises and lowers, put the gun)s) with a laser on a lead sled, and line the guy up with the laser, then press a remote button? Missing the shot is inexcusable.

Or have a pistol built into the headrest on the chair. But I guess the more merciful and quick headshot would be too gory for the public.

[Hawkmoon]

I find it difficult to accept that even a shot through the heart would result in death within 15 seconds.

[WLJ]

I find it difficult to accept that even a shot through the heart would result in death within 15 seconds.

I think it's 10-15 to unconsciousness if blood flow to the brain is cut off

[Northwoods]

I think it's 10-15 to unconsciousness if blood flow to the brain is cut off

^^^
That.

[Boomhauer]

There were 3 shooters in the firing squad but only 2 hit neither of which hit the heart.
So one guy flat out missed and the other two were off the mark. More fuel for libs
BTW: Further down they talk about him choosing a firing squad over the chair

https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1920642373622825457

Botched? Sumbitch is dead isn’t he?

[MillCreek]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/08/south-carolina-firing-squad-execution

The three shooters all had loaded rifles and were 15 feet away from the prisoner.

[Bogie]

What makes junkies walk around all hunched over, or sit/stand facing a tree or wall, with their head on it?

[Northwoods]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/08/south-carolina-firing-squad-execution

The three shooters all had loaded rifles and were 15 feet away from the prisoner.

I'm wondering if one forgot to take the safety off, or had a hang fire.  Or just hesitated at the moment and never pulled the trigger, or purposely pulled the shot to miss.  It's almost impossible to miss am entire human body at 15' with a modern rifle.

[dogmush]

Embrace tradition.  9x18 Mak

[Hawkmoon]

M79 for the win

[armoredman]

The best thing about firing squad is the easy resupply. See, the lethal injection requires the state to buy time sensitive drugs, from licensed providers thereof. Well, leftists try to find out WHO those providers are and run them out of business one way or another, until they swear to never sell drugs for capital punishment again.
Running low on 30-30? Send a guy in civilian clothes to a gun shop to grab a couple of boxes. No problem.
As for clean up, pressure washer and large drain works.

[K Frame]

"A South Carolina firing squad failed to strike the heart of convicted cop killer Mikal Mahdi, leaving him conscious for up to 80 seconds"

How long did his victim suffer before dying?

Oh isn't this really special...

"Mikal Deen Mahdi[a] (March 20, 1983 – April 11, 2025) was an American convicted spree killer who was executed for the murder of a police officer in South Carolina. Over a period of three days in July 2004, Mahdi, then a resident of Virginia, went on a multistate crime spree, committing carjacking, firearm robbery, and three murders, for two of which he was tried and found guilty.

Mahdi fled the state after murdering a man in Brunswick County, Virginia following a drug deal gone wrong. Although Mahdi confessed to that crime, he was never tried because of his two later murder convictions.[1] Mahdi then robbed and killed a 29-year-old convenience store clerk, Christopher Jason Boggs, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on July 15, 2004. Two days after the murder of Boggs, Mahdi carjacked a man and stole his car in Columbia, South Carolina before fleeing to a local farm in Calhoun County, South Carolina, where he murdered 56-year-old off-duty police officer James Myers, whose body was doused in diesel fuel and burned by Mahdi."


I'm sorry, I'm supposed to feel sorry for the ahole? I'm sorry he didn't suffer more, maybe? I'm sorry that they didn't do the south to north wood chipper?

[HeroHog]

I'll take 40mm Grenade to COM FTW please, Alex.

[Northwoods]

9mm (any of several flavors, but a +p x19 with Gold Dots has some "insurance" vs the others) to the back of the head is pretty quick. 

Lots of folks that would happily design a chair in condemned could be strapped to with the muzzle 4-6" from the medulla oblongata.  Could be a single shot barrel, not a full pistol.
 Remote discharge switch, with 2 identical buttons that are randomly picked as active vs dummy.

Though what's also easy would be a tight fitting mask supplying air which is then switched to pure N2.

[zxcvbob]

Though what's also easy would be a tight fitting mask supplying air which is then switched to pure N2.

I don't understand why nobody does that.  Give the condemned a mild sedative beforehand if he wants it. Then it's good old breathing air that switches to industrial N₂, through a full-face CPAP mask or a scuba mask, etc.  It's almost too clean and painless.  The only thing potentially "cruel and unusual" is knowing it's going to happen.

[MechAg94]

I don't understand why nobody does that.  Give the condemned a mild sedative beforehand if he wants it. Then it's good old breathing air that switches to industrial N₂, through a full-face CPAP mask or a scuba mask, etc.  It's almost too clean and painless.  The only thing potentially "cruel and unusual" is knowing it's going to happen.

It would have to be "medical grade" nitrogen since it is used on a person.       But it would be very quick. 

I assumed the method was avoided due to connection with Nazi gas chambers. 

[griz]

A South Carolina firing squad botched the execution of Mikal Mahdi last month, with shooters missing the target area on the man’s heart

The part of me that's into shooting wants to know the specifics.  Miss by how much?  Who sighted in the rifles?  Bureaucracies being what they are, I can see them buying the latest and greatest rifle and scope and assuming that was all there was to it since they spent big bucks.  Then again, I can see one of the shooters thinking a quick death was too good for him.  Not something we're probably ever going to find out.

[WLJ]

Maybe they weren't experience shooters and failed to compensate for sight/optic height over bore? (Note height over bore and not height over rail as many confuse the two) 15ft is pretty short for some sight/optic combos in that regard. A lot of that also depends on what gun optics combo they were using as some are 3" or even more over bore.
Of course that doesn't explain the complete miss if it was a miss.

[WLJ]

Just wait until we get into the .45 caliber stuff.

Or 22lr. I know someone who's completely convinced 22lr is the deadest cal out there because it shreds the inside of the human by bouncing around like a pinball inside.

[cordex]

I don't understand why nobody does that.  Give the condemned a mild sedative beforehand if he wants it. Then it's good old breathing air that switches to industrial N₂, through a full-face CPAP mask or a scuba mask, etc.  It's almost too clean and painless.  The only thing potentially "cruel and unusual" is knowing it's going to happen.

Several states have adopted and used it.