I can't think of what this is called

Question

okay we've learned about this in history and i can't remember anything about it except the concept. it's when someone is being put to death but by doing so they are surrounded with men and they all shoot but only one gun has a bullet and no one knows who. any ideas?? or am i nuts and i'm inventing new death penalties!

Answer 1

this method of execution was death by a "firing squad". not used much anymore. by using only one bullet but having several men fire at once, no one knew who fired the round that killed the individual.

Answer 2

It's called execution by a firing squad of Riflemen. And I am not sure you are correct about the one bullet thing.

Answer 3

Death by firing squad.  Why only ONE bullet?

Death by firing squad might include only 1 or 2 of the shooters having a live bullet, to absolve the shooters from personal responsibility/guilt.  (No one would know who the actual killer was.)

So if you were a member of the squad, you could say to yourself that you weren't the killer - So far as you knew, you probably had one of the blanks.

Answer 4

It is an execution by firing squad...very popular in the military at one time. This method was used by many different countries. The one bullet thing is actual. This is believed to reduce flinching by individual members of the firing squad, making the execution process more reliable. It also allows each member of the firing squad a chance to believe afterward that he did not personally fire a fatal shot.

This is excerpt form a book...

"Six privates had already been given a day's rations and sent to a remote village; they were the firing party. That night the condemned man and his escort of military policemen joined them. Early next morning, the firing party went out to a nearby quarry. Their rifles were taken away and later returned, loaded: one with a blank round, the others with live ones. No one knew who had the blank round."

"The First Day on the Somme", Martin Middlebrook

It's a bit of reverse from what you are asking about, though the same principle.

Answer 5

Ok, you have two separate concepts here.  The first is a literary saying that refers to a group of people who have come up with a plan that is doomed to failure - a circular firing squad -   The second is a form of capital punishment used widely through Britian and South America in the 1800's when a soldier was put to death for some capital offense - because some of the men on the firing squad may actually be the soldier's buddies, only one or two of the twelve men on the squad, who, by the way, stand in a straight line, are given real ammo.   Hope this helps.

Answer 6

I think it may be Russian Relet.  :)