Last week, while walking the dogs with Michael, I mused that there has been an unnaturally long gap between the last attempted assassination of an American President and now.
I was trying to make the point that, no matter how vitriolic American politics has been in the last couple of decades, at least it seems to have settled down in one respect. I was not, despite what someone out there may think, requesting that someone take a pot-shot at former president Trump.
And we could quibble that he is a not a currently sitting president, but the fact remains that someone took a shot at him, and someone got in the way of someone taking a shot at him and died.
In case you haven’t heard the news yet, earlier this month, a gunman opened fire at one of Donald Trump’s campaign rally’s nicking the former president’s ear.
Which means that one of America’s favourite political past-times—killing or attempting to kill politicians—is back on the table.
The first known attempt on a president’s life was way back in 1835 when an assassin tried to shoot Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the US.
In that case, a painter named Richard Lawrence walked up to Andrew Jackson, pulled a gun, and pulled the trigger.
It didn’t fire.
No problem, he thought, as he had brought a second pistol. He pulled that gun out, pointed it at the president, and…
Nothing.
Well, from his end nothing. Jackson, not impressed that this man had pointed not one but two guns at him, took his cane and began whacking the living bejesus out of Lawrence.
The first president to actually be killed while in office was, of course, Abraham Lincoln, and the story is the subject of Greg Gaffin’s magnificent song “Lincoln’s Funeral Train,” which has been a staple cover song of my band Downwater Union.
That was in 1865. Since then, three other presidents have been killed: James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy.
In addition to Trump, there have been two other presidents wounded by gunmen. Teddy Roosevelt was shot while campaigning, but a folded copy of his campaign speech and his glasses case took the brunt of the bullet. Instead of going to the hospital, he gave his speech, which lasted 84 minutes, before getting looked at.
Finally, Ronald Regan was shot and nearly killed back in 1981.
These are mostly well known, but less well known are at least 35 other plots and attempts to kill presidents, ranging from foiled plots (like when a 2011 plot to kill then-president Obama came to light when members of the group planning the assassination attempt were arrested, and one of the members spilled the beans on the rest in exchange for a lighter sentence) to changes of heart (Richard Pavlick planned to ram his car, loaded with dynamite, into John F. Kennedy’s car, but saw the president with his wife and kids and changed his mind) to bad aim (Sara Jane Moore tried to shoot Gerald Ford, but a bystander noticed her pull the gun and grabbed her arm).
Here’s the sad thing. While there hadn’t been a president wounded or killed by an assassination attempt since Regan, more than 40 years ago, it seems like the actual number of plots and attempts has actually gone up. Bill Clinton was subject of at least five attempts on his life, while Obama had at least eight, including a pipe bomb that was mailed to him, as well as a letter laced with ricen.
The most ridiculous assassination attempt was in 2017, when a man stole a forklift from an oil refinery. His plan was to drive the forklift into the president’s limo, then flip it over. However, he never even managed to get out of the refinery, instead getting the forklift stuck.
Meanwhile, here in Canada, no prime minister has ever been assassinated. But we should not think we are above or exempt from political violence.
Remember in 1995, a man broke into 24 Sussex Drive. He had a knife and later claimed he was there to kill then prime minister Jean Chretien, though he made no attempt to enter the bedroom where Chretien and his wife were and waited for the RCMP to arrive.
More recently, in 2020, Corey Hurren crashed his pickup truck through the gates of Rideau Hall grounds, where both the Governor General and prime minister live. He set out on foot with three loaded firearms and a knife before getting into a 90-minute standoff with RCMP officers.
He said he was there to “arrest” Trudeau after recent amendments to gun laws. And, you know, Covid.
Add that to attempted bombings of the House of Commons in 1966, the 2014 attack on Parliment Hill and the FLQ, and we’ve had a fairly rough history, too.
In 2020, Michael Wernick, who was clerk of the Privy Council of Canada, said there is a “certain innocence” in Canada when it comes to political violence.
“I worry about the rising tide of incitements to violence when people use terms like ‘treason’ and ‘traitor’ in open discourse,” Wernick told the committee. “Those are the words that lead to assassination. I’m worried that somebody is going to be shot in this country, this year, during the political campaign.”
While his predictions have not come to fruition, yet, if feels like we’re heading down that road.
In recent years, numerous politicians —including the former mayor of Gatineau—have resigned due to a “hostile political environment.”
In Quebec, nearly 800 municipal politicians have stepped down since the 2021 election.
And while we are not as pure and innocent as we would like to think, here’s hoping that we remain able to discuss our political differences civilly, and not at the point of a gun, as violence in the name of political ideology is still just violence.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
