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Would-be assassins a work hazard for US presidents

21.11.11

— The alleged attempt to kill Barack Obama by an apparently delusional loner accused of firing an assault weapon at the White House, leaving bullet holes in the glass of the president's residence, is just the latest startling event in America's long history of political assassinations.

Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, John Garfield, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, George Wallace, Ronald Reagan, Gabrielle Giffords and a host of other lesser-known political figures have been the targets of successful or would-be assassins, most of them alienated misanthropes, since the U.S. was founded in 1776.

Law enforcement officials allege Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, apprehended Thursday and accused of firing an assault rifle at the White House a week ago, was hoping to add Obama to the list of American politicians felled by assassins' bullets.

While the White House shooting wasn't exactly the most frightening assassination attempt given Obama was a continent away at the time, law-enforcement officials are throwing the full weight of the law at the suspect, charging him with attempted assassination.

Source: CTV.ca