It is a heavy, dark list. Most Americans can name the big ones—Lincoln, Kennedy—but the actual history of which US presidents were shot is a lot messier and more frequent than we like to admit. It’s not just about the four who died. It’s about the narrow misses, the sheer luck of a thick overcoat, and the moments where American history almost took a hard left turn because of a single piece of lead.
Honestly, when you look at the numbers, it's terrifying. Four sitting presidents were assassinated. Several others were wounded. If you count the serious attempts where a trigger was actually pulled but the gun jammed or the shooter missed, the list expands even further. We're talking about a recurring nightmare that has haunted the White House since the mid-19th century.
Let's get into the specifics.
The Four Who Didn't Survive: Assassinations that Changed Everything
Abraham Lincoln was the first. Everyone knows the Ford’s Theatre story, but people forget how vulnerable he was. It was April 14, 1865. John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor, basically just walked up behind the President and shot him in the back of the head. There was no Secret Service like we have now. There was just a guy named John Frederick Parker, a guard who had actually left his post to go get a drink at the Star Saloon next door. One drink changed the trajectory of Reconstruction.
Then comes James A. Garfield. This one is arguably the most tragic because the bullet didn't actually kill him. At least, not directly. On July 2, 1881, Charles Guiteau shot Garfield at a train station in Washington, D.C. Guiteau was a delusional guy who thought he was responsible for Garfield’s election and deserved a consulship in Paris. When he didn't get it, he bought a British Bulldog revolver—specifically choosing one with ivory grips because he thought it would look better in a museum one day.
Garfield lingered for 80 days. 80 days of absolute agony. Doctors kept sticking their unwashed fingers into the wound to find the bullet, which was a death sentence in an era before surgeons really believed in germs. They even brought in Alexander Graham Bell to use a makeshift metal detector to find the slug, but the device malfunctioned because Garfield was lying on a bed with metal springs—a new invention at the time. The infection, not the shooter, killed him.
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The Turn of the Century Violence
William McKinley was next, shot in 1901. He was at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York, shaking hands. Leon Czolgosz had a .32 caliber Iver Johnson revolver hidden under a handkerchief. He fired twice. McKinley actually told the guards not to hurt the guy as they were tackling him. Similar to Garfield, McKinley seemed like he was recovering, but gangrene set in. He died eight days later, and Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest president in history.
And then, Dallas. November 22, 1963. John F. Kennedy. This is the one that still lives in the collective psyche. Lee Harvey Oswald, the Texas School Book Depository, the motorcade. It was the first time an assassination was captured on film in such a visceral way, thanks to Abraham Zapruder. It fundamentally changed how the Secret Service operates. No more open-top cars. No more "man of the people" accessibility without a literal wall of glass and steel.
Which US Presidents Were Shot and Lived to Tell the Tale?
Survival is often a matter of inches. Or, in the case of Theodore Roosevelt, a matter of a very long speech.
In 1912, TR was running for a third term as a "Bull Moose" candidate. He was in Milwaukee when John Schrank shot him in the chest. Now, Roosevelt was a different breed. Instead of rushing to the hospital, he felt the wound, realized he wasn't coughing up blood (which meant his lung wasn't punctured), and decided to give his 90-minute speech anyway.
"Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."
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He had a 50-page speech folded in his pocket, along with a metal eyeglass case. The bullet passed through both before lodging in his rib. He carried that bullet in his body for the rest of his life.
The Reagan and Trump Close Calls
Ronald Reagan came incredibly close to death in 1981. John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots outside the Washington Hilton. A bullet ricocheted off the presidential limousine and hit Reagan under the left arm, grazing a rib and lodging in his lung. He was losing a lot of blood. When he got to George Washington University Hospital, he still managed to joke with the surgeons, asking if they were all Republicans. He was 70 years old, and his recovery was nothing short of a medical miracle for the time.
Fast forward to more recent history. On July 13, 2024, Donald Trump was shot while speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A bullet fired by Thomas Matthew Crooks grazed his right ear. It was a matter of milliseconds and a slight turn of the head. If he hadn't turned to look at a chart on a screen at that exact moment, the outcome would have been catastrophic. It served as a violent reminder that political assassinations aren't just "history"—they are a persistent threat in the modern era.
The "Almost" List: When the Gun Didn't Fire
We also have to talk about the times when a president was technically "shot at" but the equipment failed. Andrew Jackson is the prime example. In 1835, Richard Lawrence tried to shoot Jackson with two different pistols. Both misfired. Jackson, who was 67 and in poor health, didn't run away. He proceeded to beat the man with his cane until his aides pulled him off. Statistically, the odds of both pistols misfiring were astronomical, yet Jackson walked away without a scratch.
Gerald Ford survived two attempts in the span of a single month in September 1975. The first was Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson. She pulled a gun, but there was no round in the chamber. A few weeks later, Sara Jane Moore fired a shot at him in San Francisco. A bystander, Oliver Sipple, grabbed her arm, causing the bullet to fly over Ford's head.
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Why This History Still Matters Today
When you look at which US presidents were shot, you start to see a pattern of how national security evolves. The Secret Service wasn't even tasked with protecting the president until after McKinley was killed. Before that, they were mainly focused on catching counterfeiters. Every time a president is wounded or killed, the "bubble" around the office gets thicker and more opaque.
It also highlights the volatility of American politics. These shooters aren't always part of a grand conspiracy; often, they are isolated individuals seeking fame or acting out of deep-seated mental illness. Guiteau wanted a job. Hinckley wanted to impress an actress. Schrank claimed the ghost of William McKinley told him to do it.
Essential Security Takeaways from Presidential History
- Proximity is the enemy: Almost every successful or near-successful shooting occurred when the president was in a crowd or a slow-moving vehicle.
- The "Lone Wolf" is the hardest to track: While we worry about organized plots, history shows the unaffiliated individual with a grudge is the most frequent threat.
- Medical advancement saves presidencies: Reagan likely would have died in 1881. Garfield likely would have lived in 1981. The quality of trauma care is a national security asset.
Digging Into the Data
If you’re researching this for a project or just out of a morbid curiosity, it’s worth looking at the primary sources. The Warren Commission Report (despite the controversies) gives an exhaustive look at the Kennedy assassination. For a more human look at the 19th-century incidents, Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic is the definitive book on Garfield—it explains exactly how the medical community failed him.
For those tracking more recent events, the GAO (Government Accountability Office) frequently releases reports on Secret Service funding and failure points. These documents aren't just dry reading; they show the constant tug-of-war between a president's desire to be "among the people" and the logistical nightmare of keeping them alive in a country with hundreds of millions of firearms.
To truly understand the scope of this, you should visit the sites. Ford's Theatre is still a working theater and a museum. The Texas School Book Depository is now the Sixth Floor Museum. Standing in those spots makes the history feel less like a Wikipedia entry and more like the visceral, world-shifting reality it was.
Next Steps for Further Research:
- Examine the 1901 Secret Service expansion to see how presidential protection became a formal mandate.
- Read the official medical reports from the Reagan shooting to understand the "Golden Hour" of trauma surgery.
- Check the National Archives for the declassified files regarding the 1975 attempts on Gerald Ford.
Understanding the history of violence against the presidency isn't just about memorizing names and dates. It’s about recognizing the fragility of the executive branch and the constant, invisible effort required to maintain the stability of the government.