{"id":115,"date":"1982-03-30T18:07:52","date_gmt":"1982-03-31T01:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=115"},"modified":"2014-07-18T15:18:38","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T22:18:38","slug":"a-year-ago-reagan-was-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=115","title":{"rendered":"A Year Ago, Reagan Was Shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a>A year ago today the world heard with shock and disbelief the startling news that President Ronald Reagan has been shot\u00a0in the chest by a would-be assassin.<\/p>\n

Luckily, the President made an unbelievably-quick recovery. You’ll remember\u00a0that four other presidents in American\u00a0history – Abraham Lincoln,\u00a0James A. Garfield. William McKinley and John F. Kennedy – weren’t that fortunate. All were assassination victims.<\/p>\n

But the disgraceful\u00a0record of tragic violence against presidents\u00a0and presidential aspirants doesn’t end there\u2026 not by any means.<\/p>\n

Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the fallen president, was assassinated by\u00a0a gunman in California in 1968 when he,\u00a0himself,\u00a0was campaigning for the president.<\/p>\n

George Wallace,\u00a0a presidential candidate, was partially paralyzed by a gunman’s bullet in 1972 in Maryland.<\/p>\n

And, as recounted by elder statesman Jennings\u00a0Randolph, Democratic tutor from West Virginia in\u00a0a statement in Congress, six other attacks\u00a0have been made on the lives of presidents or presidential candidates in the history of the Republic;<\/p>\n

President Andrew Jackson in 1835, Presidential nominee Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 (before he took office as the 32nd President),\u00a0President Harry Truman in 1950, and President Gerald R. Ford in 1975 (two\u00a0attempts).<\/p>\n

Lincoln, the 16th president, was shot April 14, 1865 and died early the next morning – less than six weeks into his second term and immediately after the Civil War victory that preserved the\u00a0Union.<\/p>\n

Attending a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, Lincoln was shot\u00a0by John\u00a0Wilkes Booth, an actor of sorts who harbored hatred for the North. In leaping from the box to the stage, Booth caught his foot in a flag and fell. Despite a broken leg\u00a0he escaped on horseback and hid for 12 days. Soldiers found him in a barn and he was shot and killed.<\/p>\n

Garfield, the 20th\u00a0President, had been in the White\u00a0House only\u00a0four months when he was shot July 2, 1881 in a Washington railway station. His attacker was Charles Guiteau\u00a0who had tried without\u00a0success to land a government job.<\/p>\n

The bullet lodged near Garfield’s spine. Doctors couldn’t\u00a0locate it in those pre-X-ray days. The president suffered great pain for more than two months before he died\u00a0Sept. 19.<\/p>\n

McKinley, the 25th\u00a0president was only months into his second term when he was shot Sept. 6, 1901, during a public reception at the PanAmerican exposition in Buffalo. N.Y. An anarchist Leon\u00a0Czologoxz,\u00a0approached in the guest line and shot McKinley with a gun concealed in a bandage. The President died Sept. 14.<\/p>\n

Kennedy you will recall, was assassinated Nov. 22, 1963 – 34 months into his presidency – during a Texas political trip while riding in an open auto at Dallas.<\/p>\n

Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald the same day and charged him with the murder. Two days later, at the police station, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, owner of a Dallas nightclub. In 1964 the Warren Commission concluded Oswald was the assassin.<\/p>\n

The attempt on Reagan’s life was made as the president emerged from the Washington Hilton Hotel after a speech. John W. Hinckley Jr., 25, of Evergreen, Colo., was\u00a0charged with the crime and awaits trial.<\/p>\n

Reagan walked into the hospital on his own power, though the bullet had entered his body under the left arm,\u00a0missing the heart.\u00a0In a way, this shooting was reminiscent of the attack on Theodore Roosevelt.<\/p>\n

“Teddy,” who earlier had completed McKinley’s second term and served one of his\u00a0own by election, was the unsuccessful nominee of the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party in\u00a0the three-party election of 1912.<\/p>\n

Roosevelt was shot Oct. 14 prior to a Milwaukee speech by saloon keeper John Schrank. An eyeglasses case in his\u00a0pocket deflected the bullet and probably\u00a0saved his life. Even with a gullet in his\u00a0chest, “Teddy” insisted on making the speech before going to the hospital. Schrank was admitted\u00a0to a mental hospital.<\/p>\n

All of the\u00a0assassinations and attempts have been senseless – tragic examples of violence and lawlessness not in keeping with the American way of law and order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A year ago today the world heard with shock and disbelief the startling news that President Ronald Reagan has been shot\u00a0in the chest by a would-be assassin. Luckily, the President made an unbelievably-quick recovery. You’ll remember\u00a0that four other presidents in American\u00a0history – Abraham Lincoln,\u00a0James A. Garfield. William McKinley and John F. Kennedy – weren’t that… Continue reading A Year Ago, Reagan Was Shot<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25,30],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}