This veteran Army combat medic opposes firing squad, knowing devastation of gunshot | Opinion

Firing squad

Idaho legislators are considering a bill that would reinstate the firing squad as a method of execution in Idaho. I oppose this bill and encourage my fellow Idahoans to contact their legislators and express their opposition.

Although I agree that the brutal crimes of some are certainly worthy of death, murderers are not the only casualty of executions.

The firing squad is a brutal scene. As a veteran U.S. Army combat medic, I am intimately familiar with the effects of a lethal gunshot. The trauma of these execution scenes is evident: South Carolina was forced to put a trough beneath the execution site to collect the inmates’ pooling blood. Utah draped their execution chamber in black to hide the splattering blood. This trauma will be experienced first-hand by our corrections officers.

A recent story by NPR found that corrections officers participating in executions are likely to experience PTSD and the effects of this trauma. If this is true for traditional executions (lethal injections) how much more so for a firing squad? Is the legislature really asking these men and women to do the unthinkable… put a bullet in another human being’s chest?

Colton Bennett, Moscow

Kustra

I am responding to Bob Kustra’s hate Trump/Republicans column under the guise of “Reflections on Lincoln, creation of Idaho Territory”. Kustra could give a lecture about a ham sandwich and turn it into a hate Trump speech. His claim that adding Cheney and Kinzinger to the Jan 6 committee gave it “bipartisan authority” is just laughable. Kustra fails to mention that Pelosi would not allow the Republicans to put members on the committee, but she placed two Republican Trump haters on it knowing that the committee could not withstand any realistic scrutiny from anyone. Kustra also states “the Republicans failed in their attempts to paint the committee as a Democratic witch-hunt”. Really? Liz Cheney consequently lost her reelection bid by a record 40 points. Kustra also says that the anticipated red wave in the midterms dissipated because of what the J6 committee revealed, there is no evidence that was the cause. Bob just made that up. Many polls taken before those mid-terms showed no change in public opinion of Trump or Republicans. Bob Kustra’s continuous one sided view of politics is tiresome, redundant and shallow.

Brad Seymour, Mountain Home

Biden

Joe Biden chose to travel to meet with the president of Ukraine instead of the mayor of East Palestine, Ohio. His ego “Trumped” his brain. This illness is common among politicians.

Kurt Smith, Boise

Maternal mortality

In 2020, Idaho pregnant and new moms died in childbirth at over twice the rate compared to 2019. Idaho legislators do not care.

The way to have more Idaho pregnant and newly delivered moms live is to know exactly what’s killing them. The Idaho Maternal Mortality Review Committee does this, and Idaho legislators pulled the bill that would continue this committee. It will be defunded in June of this year.

This committee of local Idaho doctors, coroners, obstetricians and medical workers review all deaths of Idaho moms who died during or soon after delivery. They make Idaho-specific recommendations for targeted, local interventions to prevent other Idaho moms from dying.

Federal studies are insufficient. Idaho has unique, specific, local causes of maternal deaths that can be prevented by unique, specific, local, targeted interventions.

Instead, Fred Birnbaum of the Idaho Freedom Foundation stated, “you don’t need a committee,” and Rep. Dori Healey, a woman who cares about Idaho’s dying mothers, was forced to pull the bill.

One wonders why the Idaho legislature, who claim to be pro-life, refuses to continue the one committee that can prevent the deaths of current and future Idaho moms.

Fund the Idaho Maternal Mortality Review Committee. Idaho moms deserve to live.

Kama Parrish, Nampa