History Everyday on Instagram: "Execution by cannon, Shiraz, Iran, 1890s. Blowing from a gun is a method of execution in which the victim is typically tied to the mouth of a cannon which is then fired, resulting in death. The process was described by English soldier George Stent as follows: The prisoner is generally tied to a gun with the upper part of the small of his back resting against the muzzle. When the gun is fired, his head is seen to go straight up into the air some forty or fifty feet