Power doesn't guarantee safety: Trump rally shooting becomes a reminder of past presidential attacks

During a doomed rally in the state of Pennsylvania, Former US President Donald Trump was shot in a foiled assassination attempt, sending shockwaves across the United States. However, it was one of more than a dozen attacks on American presidents, presidents-elect or presidential candidates in the history of the country.

According to a congressional report which was published in 2008, there have been 15 “direct assaults” on presidents, presidents-elects and candidates between the years 1835 and 2005. But the last assassination attempt was in 2011 when a man was charged with attempting to assassinate former US President Barack Obama after authorities noted that he had fired shots at the White House. Also in 2018, the Secret Service also intercepted a pipe bomb that had been sent to him.

In 2016, a man at a Las Vegas rally for then-candidate Trump attempted to pull a gun off a police officer. He later attempted to the authorities that he intended to kill the former president. A year later, a man attempted to steal a forklift during a Trump rally in an assassination attempt.

While these attacks were prevented before any harm was done to anyone, there were some that can be easily called “close calls”. Here’s a look back at some of the notable attacks on American presidents and candidates in the modern era.

George W. Bush

In 2005, an attacker threw a grenade at then-president George W Bush, during a rally in Tbilisi, Georgia. However, a major tragedy was averted because the bomb did not explode. According to the FBI’s report on the matter, the bomb landed just 61 feet from Bush, then First Lady Laura Bush, then-President and First Lady of the Republic of Georgia along with a host of other state officials.

“The hand grenade failed to detonate, thankfully, as the red handkerchief wrapped tightly around it didn’t allow the firing pin to deploy fast enough,” the report further stated.

The Georgian authorities eventually identified the man named Vladimir Arutyunian (or Arutunian) as the main suspect in the attack. After the Georgian police raided his apartment, he opened fire killing one Georgian police officer. From his hospital bed, Arutyunian admitted that he had thrown the grenade in hopes of killing Bush. He was later sentenced to life.

Ronald Reagan

The former US President was leaving the Hilton Hotel in Washington DC when a man named John Hinckley Jr. fired a .22 calibre revolver. According to the Reagan Library, the ex-president’s wounds were not noticed until he began to “cough up blood”. Three others were also injured in the fatal shooting incident.

Later at a rally, when a balloon popped, Reagan said “missed me,” recalling the assassination attempt. The phrase which only had two words is still touted as one one the most powerful phrases by an American commander-in-chief.

Gerald Ford

It is pertinent to note that Ford is the only president in the country’s history who has the honour of surviving two assassination attempts. On September 5, 1975, he survived a gunshot misfired by Lynette Alice Fromme.

17 days after the incident, a woman named Sara Jane Moore missed her target on the first shot at Ford. However, in the second shot, a bystander grabbed the gun and a taxi driver got hit during the tussle.

George C. Wallace

Democratic presidential hopeful and then Alabama Governor George C. Wallace was shot after a rally in Laurel, Maryland on May 15, 1972. The attack was devastating as after being shot five times, Wallace became paralysed from the waist down. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the failed assassination made Wallace reconsider his segregationist views.

Robert F. Kennedy

After winning the Democratic primary in California, Kennedy was shot dead by Sirhan Sirhan, while he was walking through the kitchen at the Ambassador Hotel. Kennedy was shot on June 5, 1968, and died the following day.

Read our story on how the assassination of John F. Kennedy left the world in utter shock: Click Here .

Harry Truman 

In the year 1950, two men named Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola fired shots at the White House. While Truman was left unharmed the incident killed one police officer and injured two others.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Three weeks before he was elected, a man named Giuseppe Zangara opened fire. The bullets missed Roosevelt, but they hit and killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak who was standing near the then-president.

Theodore Roosevelt

Roosevelt was appointed to the Oval Office after the assassination of then-President William McKinley in 1901. He eventually won his own term in 1904 — and campaigned for the third one.

The former president was leaving dinner at a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, hotel on October 14, 1912, when a man named John Schrank aimed his .38-caliber Colt revolver. According to the Library of Congress, Schrank eventually told the authorities McKinley had asked Schrank to avenge his death in a dream.

Over the years, four US presidents were assassinated during their terms in the White House. They are as follows:

• Abraham Lincoln - April 14, 1865

• James Garfield - July 2, 1881

• William McKinley - September 6, 1901

• John F. Kennedy - November 22, 1663

While leaders of other countries have also been assassinated, America emerges as a glaring example of how most powerful people in the world are still not safe. Interestingly, almost all of the incidents are gun-related which begs the question, does the United States need stringent gun laws?

With inputs from agencies.