A Wyoming senator is trying to pass a bill that would allow firing squads to perform executions on death row inmates.
Republican state Sen. Bruce Burns said on Monday that he'll be introducing and pushing the legislation in the Feb. 10th Joint Session, TIME reported.
According to the bill, the firing squad would be used in the event that lethal injection materials are unavailable. Burns reportedly insisted that the alternative option inmates currently have - the gas chamber - puts too much of a financial burden on the state, and is a form of cruel and unusual punishment.
"One of the reasons I chose firing squad as opposed to any other form of execution is because, frankly, it's one of the cheapest for the state," Burns said, according to the Associated Press. "The expense of building a gas chamber, I think, would be prohibitive when you consider how many people would be executed by it, and even the cost of gallows."
Some states have recently encountered a shortage of the primary drug used for executions, pentobarbital, forcing officials to use a combination of other drugs as a substitute.
Ohio authorities have reportedly been mixing midazolam and hydromorphone since pentobarbital supplies expired in October 2013.
Wyoming currently has one inmate on death row, TIME reported.
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