o sung wu,

I suppose ultimately it depends on whether one believes in atonement - and transformation.

On "reformation, courage and dignity" - from the Australian Catholic University...
http://www.theage.com.au/national/australian-catholic-university-reveals-scholarships-to-honour-executed-bali-9-duo-20150501-1mxmdp.html?stb=twt&skin=dumb-phone

Dear Poirot,

Thank You for the link.

I firmly believe in atonement and transformation.
At least for most people (not so sure about psychopaths
like Charles Manson and Ivan Milat).

This is a significant move by the Catholic University.

War kills many who have committed no crime. They were killed because they lived in a country that another country was a war with.

Australia has rightfully protested the death by execution of two of its citizens. I believe it is wrong to kill people even if they have been found guilty of crimes.

However, Australia gets part of its income from the sale of arms. These sales require an export license. The export licenses are classed commercial-in-confidence so the trade in death is not public knowledge. Australia provides material for the slaughter of the innocents. Apparently most of the arms sold goes to neighouring repressive governments to keep their own people in check.

What is Australia doing to prevent future wars?

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=17285 is my article reflecting on Anzac Day. In it are a number of suggestions for making the organised slaughter of war less likely. Think of what you can do or persuade your government to do to make such slaughter less likely.

Dear David F.,

Thank You for your article.

Many years ago I compiled an anthology (as part of
my university studies) on anti-nuclear Australian poetry.
I feared that our world had become so obsessed with
the problems of hatred and aggression that it would
allow peace and love to be regarded as soft and
weak. Yet our survival depends on their dominance.
Otherwise Stephen Vincent Benet's prophecy would
come true:

"Oh where are you coming from soldier,
gaunt soldier
with weapons beyond any reach of my mind
with weapons so deadly the world must grow older
and die in its tracks if it does not turn kind."

David Headon in "Imagining The Real," tells us -

"We need new ways of thinking to cope with the
nuclear age. It is here that writers, (such as yourself),
and others, with their concern for the human condition
and their special skills with language, can enable us
to imagine the horrific reality of nuclear arms and nerve
us to build an alternative future.

Paul,

As I don't have the ear of the S&F Party's MPs I wouldn't have a clue, but I imagine that as they don't have a policy to save all of humanity from itself, unlike the Greens, but only to serve the direct interests of their constituents then there would b no policy on capital punishment.

As to the best weapons for the job, what the Indonesians have seems to work well as the projectiles would take less than 1/3,000th of a second to pass through a human body.
The kinetic energy does massive damage and death is, for all practical purposes, instantaneous.
That's why shooting in a vital spot is a humane way of killing.

Is Mise,

<<serve the direct interests of their constituents>>

In NSW that is less than 4% of the voting public, and Bob Ballsup just fell in at position 19 from 21, needed a swag of preferences from nobody's to get elected. So much for the pro shooting lobby, their non existent policies are of no consequence anyway. so who cares what they make of capital punishment.