As soon as mankind learned to shoot, it figured out how to use that power to kill. The history of shooting squads is very long, though the practice is quickly becoming a relic of the past. If you're wondering "when did shooting squads start?" or "how did shooting squads start?", hold your horses, that information is coming, along with a number of other fascinating facts and anecdotes about the history of firing squads. The invention of gunpowder (and the firearms that use it) was the catalyst for firing squads becoming the standard method of execution for militaries across centuries. Many traitors, spies, and war criminals met their end to men with rifles, and are memorialized in the annals of shooting squads in history.