Wyoming and Missouri politicians call for use of firing squad as America runs out of lethal injections And a senator from Wyoming and a representative from Missouri have both said that their states should now introduce death by firing squad. Currently Utah is the only state to allow such punishment - and only three inmates have been executed in that way since 1977. "A lot of folks may picture the 1850s and everyone lining up to shoot, but the reality is that people suffer with every type of death," said Rick Brattin, state representative for Missouri. He said the controversy over lethal injections forces the families of murder victims to wait too long for justice. On Thursday he introduced a bill to add "firing squad" as an execution option. Mr Brattin, a Republican, said: "This is no less humane than lethal injection." Missouri, which is scheduled to execute an inmate in late January, uses lethal injection by statute and permits execution by gas - a method it has not used since 1965. The United States has executed more than 1,300 prisoners since it resumed the death penalty in the 1970s, nearly 1,200 by lethal injection. Mr Brattin's bill follows a measure introduced by Bruce Burns, a Republican senator for Wyoming, last week to add firing squad as an execution option for the state, if drugs are not available. "If I had my choice, I would take the firing squad over lethal injection," said Mr Burns. Wyoming law also allows inmates to be gassed, but the state does not have a gas chamber, he said. Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks the use of capital punishment, said the firing squad proposals show the desperation some politicians have to find a way around the issues raised by lethal injection. Utah uses firing squads only at the inmate's option and is phasing out the method, Mr Dieter said. Two death row inmates in Utah still have the option of execution by firing squad.