A firing squad can stop a heart in ten seconds
While lethal injections can take twenty minutes of agonizing uncertainty to succeed, a volley of high-velocity rounds delivers a definitive, mechanical end to life almost instantly.
The transition from life to death by firing squad is a matter of pure ballistics rather than chemical reaction. Five marksmen stand twenty feet away, aiming .30-30 caliber rifles at a white cloth target pinned over the heart. When they fire simultaneously, the impact of four live rounds—one rifle is loaded with a blank to provide 'psychological deniability' for the shooters—severs the aorta and shatters the heart. This causes a massive drop in blood pressure that renders the person unconscious within seconds, followed by total cardiac arrest.