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A president is a very important person in the government of a country. However, being an important person makes him the person most vulnerable to sudden attacks by certain elements who don’t like the character or actions of a president. This could happen to the president of any country.
The United States (US) in the early years of this country’s founding did not pay much attention to the personal security of the president. Quoting American Experience, this is because many people believe that this young democratic republic is immune to political violence.
The government’s negligence towards this threat led to several cases of assassination of the president. Learning from mistakes, the US began to increase protection aimed not only at the president, but also at protecting the families of presidents, former presidents and presidential candidates.
In connection with the presidential shooting case, the following four US presidents were killed by firearms as reported by various sources:
1. Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th US president who was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater, Washington, DC. This incident occurred on April 14, 1865 at around 22.15. At that time Lincoln was watching the play ‘Our American Cousin’ at the Ford Theatre.
Booth, who was a famous actor, sneaked onto Lincoln’s private balcony, where he and his wife and friends watched the show. Then Booth fired a bullet using a .44 caliber Derringer pistol into the back of Lincoln’s head. The gunshot left Lincoln seriously injured and he was in a coma for nine hours. Unfortunately, on April 15, 1865, Lincoln died at 7:22 p.m.
2. James Garfield
The shooting incident of James Garfield as the 20th US president occurred at the Baltimore and Potomac Train Station in Washington, DC. Quoting Wikipedia, on July 2, 1881, upon the president’s arrival at the train station, writer and lawyer Charles J. Guiteau shot him twice with a .442 Webley British Bull Dog pistol.
Garfield, who was shot in the back, survived for 79 days but died on September 19 1881 at 22.35 due to complications caused by an iatrogenic infection contracted from a doctor’s examination with unsterile fingers and instruments.
3. William McKinley
The 25th US President was shot twice in the stomach by Leon Czolgosz, who was an anarchist. On September 6, 1901, William McKinley was attending the Pan-American Exposition at the Temple of Music, Buffalo, New York. Leon, armed with a .32 caliber pistol hidden under a handkerchief, fired it at McKinley in the stomach.
The first shot missed the award medal on McKinley’s jacket, but the second shot penetrated his stomach. McKinley managed to recover from the gunshot but on September 14 1901, he breathed his last breath at exactly 02.15 due to gangrene around his wound.
4. John F. Kennedy
The tragedy of the assassination of the US president occurred again for the fourth time with the victim being John F. Kennedy, the 35th US president. Kennedy’s assassination occurred in the middle of the presidential motorcade at Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
At that time Kennedy was driving with his wife Jacqueline along with the Governor of Texas who was also accompanied by his wife. Lee Harvey Oswald, a US Marine veteran, shot Kennedy from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building and hit him in the back, penetrating the neck, followed by a second bullet that hit his head. Kennedy was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, but could not be saved and died the same day at 13.00.
