Talk:Execution by firing squad/merge discussion

Last time I checked when you are executing someone with a firing squad: you are shooting them--Glas (talk) 07:41, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Support for sure - the data on "by shooting" is redundant compared to "squad". Caseykcole (talk) 01:09, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

No support from me, because execution by shooting does not necessarily imply execution by firing squad. 124.177.26.138 (talk) 09:29, 2 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Execution by shooting does imply an officially recognized sharps-man is performing the execution, which is pretty much the definition of a firing squad. Supporting the merge.86.44.152.151 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 13:26, 7 June 2009 (UTC).

Instead of merging Execution by shooting into Execution by firing squad, why not merge the other way round (firing squad --> shooting)? Execution by shooting doesn't necessarily involve a firing squad (a single shooter vs. a group of shooters pointing guns at the condemned and firing at the same time), while "execution by firing squad" is execution by shooting.-- Joshua Say "hi" to me!What I've done? 03:15, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

This page was originally broken out from execution by firing squad to execution by firearms because of a need to distinguish between execution by firing squad (explicitly requiring multiple shooters and incorporating concepts like diffusion of responsibility) and the practice of execution by single shot to the back of the head (which by definition involves only a single shooter and generally different social issues). The content was moved through multiple titles and completely rewritten several times but ultimately the distinction remains that not all the content of the "by shooting" page can be merged into the "by firing squad" article because not all the techniques use squads. Anon 86.44.152.151's assertion above that any execution by shooting involves a marksman is incorrect. A pistol at point-blank range requires no skill or training. And again, a single person is not a squad. Joshua's suggestion to merge the other way would appear to be theoretically more consistent but, in my opinion, it would result in an overloaded and unbalanced article. This solution with separate pages is cleaner. That's not to say that the page couldn't be improved with a better title, though. Any suggestions? Rossami (talk) 02:56, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Why not merge all three articles into this article? I support the merge now that I see there's only two articles. It's like having a different article for the different types of hanging. Metallurgist (talk) 06:32, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Support The first sentence of Execution by shooting refers to the capital punishment by one or more firearms, which would automatically include a firing squad. Also, "by Shooting" is merely a brief lead-in with (unreferenced) information that would suit "by Firing Squad", a brief summary of Soviet and E. Germany methods, and an Asia section that's merely comprised of bullet points. If anything, the "by Shooting" article is weaker and less informative. Because the "by Shooting" article uses the term "firing squad" six times (in the body), it's obviously about firing squad, not just "shooting". –  Ker αun oςc op ia◁ galaxies  01:44, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

Support Regardless of if "squad" can mean one or not, these articles cover the same thing. Squad can be used to mean small group, and a group can possibly only contain one. 71.127.78.174 (talk) 14:23, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Support: As Keraunoscopia points out, "firing squad" is a subset of "shooting", so these pages should be combined. However "shooting" is far too vague a term and can be interpreted a number of different ways. Are we going to include poison darts, cannons, drugs...? Better to recombine these articles at Execution by firearms.  Pyrop e  14:21, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

Support the reverse Execution by firing squad is a subset of execution by shooting, not the other way 'round. -Rrius (talk) 15:27, 20 June 2010 (UTC)