I don't want them afraid of being caught-out in public. I want them afraid of being murdered in their beds, in their mcmansions, of having rattlesnakes dumped in the air vents of their bunkers. Catch them when they are trying to flee the country, absolutely, but frankly, most aren't worth the spectacle and resources of a guillotine, or transporting them to such.

I'm not interested in educating people whose mode of being should not exist. For those worth educating, the deterrent of a guillotine is a comical hassle versus a bullet to the head - there's good reason modern revolutions use the latter.

I mean, if the edge is sharp enough, the thickness of the rest hardly matters. As for the need for repeated attempts as-specefied, I think God says it best:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rnx6n1lj4hU&t=252s

304 Stainless steel? Your soup spoon is made from that. Great for corrosion resistant items that don't need much hardness. 3xx stainless is also considered easier to machine. Perhaps you meant something from the 440 series A through C? Those are hardenable.

5160 is a spring steel alloy and would be excellent. Except it's not very corrosion resistant.

Alls I’m saying is, you get what you pay for. Frankly, the slide assembly should be tempered steel as well, to minimize deflection and wear. You’re not gonna maintain rigidity with galvanized L-brackets either, and the pulley system should have bushings. Slap a small motor on it and a palm button control, you got efficiency and ease of operation.