Assassination attempts against US Presidents and candidates

Candidate and Former United States President Donald Trump was wounded in an assassination bid during a campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania over the weekend.  As you know, assassination is a homicide or attempted homicide of a prominent or important person.

THE LAW OF THE UNITED STATES ON ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT

18 U.S. Code § 1751 - Presidential and Presidential staff assassination, kidnapping, and assault; penalties

Whoever kills (1) any individual who is the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President, or, if there is no Vice President, the officer next in the order of succession to the Office of the President of the United States, the Vice President-elect, or any person who is acting as President under the Constitution and laws of the United States, or (2) any person appointed under section 105(a)(2)(A) of title 3 employed in the Executive Office of the President or appointed under section 106(a)(1)(A) of title 3 employed in the Office of the Vice President, shall be punished as provided by sections 1111 and 1112 of this title.

(b)

Whoever kidnaps any individual designated in subsection (a) of this section shall be punished (1) by imprisonment for any term of years or for life, or (2) by death or imprisonment for any term of years or for life, if death results to such individual.

(c)

Whoever attempts to kill or kidnap any individual designated in subsection (a) of this section shall be punished by imprisonment for any term of years or for life.

(d)

If two or more persons conspire to kill or kidnap any individual designated in subsection (a) of this section and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be punished (1) by imprisonment for any term of years or for life, or (2) by death or imprisonment for any term of years or for life, if death results to such individual.

(e)

Whoever assaults any person designated in subsection (a)(1) shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both. Whoever assaults any person designated in subsection (a)(2) shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the assault involved the use of a dangerous weapon, or personal injury results, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

(f)

The terms “President-elect” and “Vice-President-elect” as used in this section shall mean such persons as are the apparent successful candidates for the offices of President and Vice President, respectively, as ascertained from the results of the general elections held to determine the electors of President and Vice President in accordance with title 3, United States Code, sections 1 and 2.

Since the founding of the US, four presidents and one presidential candidate have been assassinated.

These are some instances where US presidents and leading presidential candidates were targeted in assassination attempts:

• 1865, Abraham Lincoln (16th president) – Assassinated while watching a theatre play with his wife in Washington, DC. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth and was given medical treatment, but died the next morning. Booth was found hiding in a barn in Virginia 12 days later, where he was shot dead.

• 1881, James Garfield (20th president) – Was shot while walking at a train station in Washington, DC, six months after taking office. He died of his wounds a few weeks later. Charles Guiteau, his killer, was found guilty and executed the following year.

• 1901, William McKinley (25th president) –  Was shot at point-blank range after giving a speech in New York. McKinley was expected to make a recovery, but gangrene set around the bullet wounds and he died eight days later. A 28-year-old man from Detroit, Leon F Czolgosz, admitted to the shooting. He was executed a few weeks after the assassination.

• 1912, Theodore Roosevelt (candidate) – Roosevelt was running for the White House as a former president when he was shot in Milwaukee. He survived the shooting but the bullet remained in his chest for the rest of his life.

• 1933, Franklin Roosevelt (32nd president) – Was the target of an assassination attempt in Miami by an Italian immigrant, Giuseppe Zangara. Roosevelt was unharmed, but Anton Cermak, the mayor of Chicago, was killed in the attack.

• 1963, John F Kennedy (35th president) – Kennedy was fatally shot while riding his motorcade through downtown Dallas. He was hit with a high-powered rifle from a distance and died in the hospital a few hours later. Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald. Two days after the arrest, as Oswald was being taken to jail, he was shot dead by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner.

• 1968, Robert F Kennedy (candidate) – The younger brother of John F Kennedy was campaigning for the Democratic nomination and had just won the 1968 California primary election. Right after he gave his victory speech, he was shot dead by Sirhan Sirhan. The killer was arrested and was sentenced to death. That was commuted to life in prison, and his petition for release, in 2023, was denied.

• 1972, George Wallace (candidate) – Wallace was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination when he was shot during a campaign stop in Maryland. He was shot four times and one of the bullets was lodged into his spinal column. That left him paralysed for the rest of his life. The man who shot him was Arthur Bremer. He was convicted and sentenced to prison. He was released in 2007.

• 1975, Gerald Ford (38th president) – Escaped two assassination attempts within 17 days, both in California (in Sacramento and San Francisco) and both carried out by women: Lynette Fromme and Sarah Jane Moore. They received life sentences.

• 1981, Ronald Reagan (40th president) – Reagan was leaving a speech in Washington, DC when he was shot by John Hinckley Jr. The bullet pierced Reagan’s left lung, narrowly missing his heart. Reagan survived the attempt on his life. Hinckley was arrested and found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was confined to a mental hospital.

• 1994, Bill Clinton (42nd president) – Clinton was inside the White House when Francisco Martin Duran fired at the building using a semiautomatic rifle. Clinton was unharmed. Duran was convicted of attempting to assassinate the president and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

• 2005, George W Bush (43rd president) – Bush was attending a rally in Tbilisi with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili when a man named Vladimir Arutyunian threw a hand grenade towards the podium. It did not explode and no one was hurt. Arutyunian was sentenced to life in prison.
  

LET US PRAY FOR GOD, COUNTRY, AND TRUMP

Lord, we are a restless and conflicted people,
Have mercy on us and come to us.
Our hearts are aching; our minds exhausted;
We need Your intervention!

But nothing is impossible with You.
Therefore, we are not hopeless,
No! We have fallen, but we have fallen
To our knees in an act of supplication.

We praise You for keeping President Trump safe,
And help our country to overcome this difficult time.
Help us stand strong against our enemies,
Let their own pride be their downfall.

Move in a way that all may see that
Their indifference to evil makes them
Enemies of the Most High.
Let them deal with You and Your holy wrath.

We pray for those injured and those that passed,
At the hands of evil.
Be with their families 
And help us to grow closer to You and each other.

We need You now more than ever;
The shadow of the next election is near us,
And we are desperate for the renewal
Than can only come from You, Sovereign King.

Be here in our hearts.
Be here in our minds.
Be here in our land.
Be with America!

In God we will always trust,
Amen.

May God Bless You, Your Business, Trump, and the United States of America, 

Tom Winslow