WASHINGTON — The shooting of former President Donald Trump Saturday was only the most recent act of political violence that has often shaped U.S. history.
Trump said he was “fine” after a bullet grazed his ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The attacker was killed by Secret Service agents, and one other person at the event died. Authorities are investigating Saturday’s attack as an assassination attempt.
The killings of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley eventually led to Secret Service protection, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy shocked the nation and resulted in even tighter security around the president.
Still, Gerald Ford was the target of two high-profile attempts on his life in the span of 18 days, and Ronald Reagan was seriously wounded by a gunman’s bullet early in his presidency in 1981.
Nearly ever modern president has been targeted. The Secret Service has foiled nearly all of those attempts, few of which resulted in injury.
Political violence has taken the lives of leaders around the world, as well, including Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.
Even before Saturday’s incident, polls showed voters worried about possible violence surrounding this year’s presidential election. A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of swing-state in May found half harbored those fears, including roughly equal shares of Democrats and Republicans. And they’re even more common among independents, the poll found.
Here’s a look at some previous attempts on U.S. presidents’ and presidential candidates’ lives:
Donald Trump
During Trump’s 2016 campaign, a 20-year-old British man attempted to grab a gun from a Las Vegas police officer at a Trump rally there. He later told police he was trying to kill Trump, and pleaded guilty to federal firearms and disruption offenses.
Ronald Reagan
On Mar. 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots at the president in Washington, hitting Reagan and three others. The president was seriously wounded but recovered after emergency surgery. The other three victims also survived. Hinckley was immediately arrested and kept in institutional psychiatric care until 2016, 12 years after Reagan’s death.
Gerald Ford
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson, attempted to shoot Ford in Sacramento, California on Sept. 5, 1975. Three weeks later, Sara Jane Moore fired a shot at Ford in San Francisco, making the two women the most prominent female would-be assassins in U.S. history.
Robert F. Kennedy
Sirhan Sirhan shot and killed Kennedy, then a candidate in the Democratic primaries, in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, less than five years after the assassination of his older brother. Sirhan was sentenced to life in prison. Kennedy’s son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is running as an independent presidential candidate in 2024.
John F. Kennedy
On Nov. 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed the president in Dallas. The assassination continues to spark debates about whether Oswald acted alone, after Oswald was killed by restaurateur Jack Ruby two days later.
Theodore Roosevelt
Roosevelt was a former president campaigning to return to the White House when he was shot giving a speech in Milwaukee on Oct. 14, 1912. Protected by the 50-page text of his speech and a glasses case in his pocket, he continued his address and recovered, eventually losing to Woodrow Wilson. Would-be assassin John Schrank was found legally insane and institutionalized until his death.
William McKinley
McKinley was shot in Buffalo, New York on Sept. 6, 1901, and later died from his wounds, elevating Vice President Roosevelt to the presidency. Anarchist Leon Czolgosz was convicted of the assassination and put to death.
James Garfield
Garfield was shot in Washington July 2, 1881. He died from complications from the wounds two months later. Writer and lawyer Charles Guiteau was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death.
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln was shot and killed in Washington on April 14, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer, who was killed after a manhunt that lasted nearly two weeks.
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