Is the expression "taken out and shot" offensive?

Solution 1:

In 99.9% of cases, if spoken by an English speaker in a liberal democracy, this would be hyperbolic and metaphorical.

These expressions are used to express disapproval of someone's views, actions or failures but not necessarily serious disapproval. It can be said jokingly.

What "taken out and shot" means literally is that someone would be taken outside the building where they currently are and killed by being shot.

Given that it is a metaphor saying simply that someone should be shot would convey the same meaning but the reason why people say "taken out and shot" rather than just "shot" is that saying it in more words has a greater rhetorical effect. Similar expressions include:

"Shot at dawn" (referring to the historical practice of executing deserting soldiers by firing squad at dawn).

"Hung, drawn, and quartered" (referring to a gruesome method of capital punishment meted out to traitors in England many centuries ago).

Another expression using a capital punishment metaphor is "It's not a hanging offence" (said about someone who did something wrong but not as seriously wrong as others are saying).

Are these expressions offensive? Any answer will inevitably be time and country specific. In rural Somerset we do not find these expressions offensive.