American Presidential Assassins and Would-Be Assassins

Before we begin, an important disclaimer is necessary. Sometimes, when people discuss political violence and the people responsible, it can feel like the speaker is attempting to romanticize or humanize murderers. That is not at all what we hope to do in this quiz. Instead, we have collected interesting facts about a slew of people who attempted to assassinate American presidents because it simply is history. We can’t look away from the past even when it makes us uncomfortable.

Many of the people who became desperate or deluded enough to try killing a president are important to learn about because, in many cases, they were normal members of their communities: the types you might sit across from on the bus every morning.

This quiz will present interesting facts about their successful or unsuccessful assassination attempts, but with as few grisly details as possible out of respect for the victims. Additionally, we have added a cutoff to this quiz that only assassination attempts prior to 1984 will be included in this quiz to ensure enough time and investigation have gone into each case.

An assassin’s bullet rarely changes the world. It may cause temporary disarray, but true, lasting change doesn’t come from a random act of violence, and that is something we see repeatedly when studying the presidential assassination attempts.

As much as to test, this quiz is meant to inform, so we hope you come out of it knowing something new. How much do you know about this unfortunate aspect to world history? Take our quiz, American Presidential Assassins and Would-Be Assassins to find out.

Good luck. See how well you know american presidential assassins and would-be assassins.