The following is a list of assassinations by firearm detailing the firearms used in the killings of politicians and key social and cultural figures.

Year Location of attack Victim Attacker Weapon Notes
1536 England

London, England

Robert Pakington, Member of Parliament Unknown Wheellock pistol[1] Believed by some to be the first political assassination ever to be performed with a firearm.[2]
1570 Scotland Linlithgow, Scotland James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh Matchlock carbine[3]
1584 Netherlands Delft, Netherlands William the Silent, Prince of Orange Balthasar Gerard Wheellock pistol
1792 Sweden Stockholm, Sweden Gustav III. King of Sweden Jacob Johan Anckarström Flintlock pistol
1812 United Kingdom London, United Kingdom Prime Minister Spencer Perceval John Bellingham Screw-barrel .50 caliber flint-lock pistol[4] The only British prime minister to be assassinated. Bellingham bought a pair of half-inch bore pistols from gunsmith W. Beckwith of Snow Hill, for four guineas.[5]
1859 United States

Lake Merced, United States

Senator David C. Broderick David S. Terry .58 caliber pistol[6] Killed in a duel after his pistol failed to fire.
1865 United States Washington, D.C., United States President Abraham Lincoln John Wilkes Booth .44 calibre muzzleloading derringer by Henry Deringer
1868 Canada Ottawa, Canada Thomas D'Arcy McGee MP Patrick J. Whelan .32 rimfire Smith & Wesson Army revolver[7][8]
1880 Canada Toronto, Canada George Brown, Premier of Canada West George Bennett (murderer) "Colt revolver"[9]
1881 United States Washington, D.C., United States President James A. Garfield Charles Guiteau .44 caliber British bulldog revolver
1882 United States Baldwyn, United States W. H. H. Tison, Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives J. Edward Sanders "Double-barrel shotgun" Killed in retaliation for an alleged assault by his brother S. H. Tison.[10]
1896 Pahlavi dynasty Tehran, Persia Shah Naser al-Din Shah Qajar of Persia Mirza Reza Kermani Revolver
1897 Spain Madrid, Spain Prime Minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo Michele Angiolillo Revolver
1900 Italy Monza, Italy King Umberto I of Italy Gaetano Bresci .32 S&W Iver-Johnson revolver
1901 United States Buffalo, United States President William McKinley Leon Czolgosz .32 S&W Iver-Johnson revolver Czolgosz purchased the weapon only three days prior to the assassination, for $4.50 (about $159.00 U.S. dollars in 2023 currency)[11]) in a hardware store in Buffalo (the site of the attack). Newspaper clippings Czolgosz had collected prior noted that this particular model had been used by anarchist Gaetano Bresci to assassinate King Umberto I of Italy.[12]
1903 Serbia Belgrade, Serbia King Alexander I of Serbia Mihailo Ristić-Džervinac Revolver
1904 Russia Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland General Nikolay Bobrikov Eugen Schauman FN Browning M1900[13]
1907 Bulgaria Sofia, Bulgaria Prime Minister Dimitar Petkov Alexander Petrov Pistol
1908 Portugal Lisbon, Portugal King Carlos I of Portugal Manuel Buíça Winchester Model 1907 semi-automatic carbine chambered in .351 WSL Serial number 2137,[14] imported from Germany by Heitor Ferreira.[15]
1909 China Harbin, China Resident-General Itō Hirobumi An Jung-geun FN M1900 pistol[citation needed]
1909 United Kingdom London, United Kingdom Curzon Wyllie Madan Lal Dhingra Revolver.
1913 Greece Thessaloniki, Greece King George I of Greece Alexandros Schinas Revolver.
1914 Austria-Hungary Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Gavrilo Princip Browning Model 1910 .380 ACP pistol[16] A letter dated April 2012 from Thomas Ilming, curator Waffen und Technik, Vienna Military Museum, who holds the actual Belgium made Browning (FN) M1910 semi-auto pistol caliber .380 acp (9 mm kurz) s/n 19074 used by Princip. This semi-automatic pistol design allows the interchangeable barrels/receiver either 9mm kurz or 7.65mm which probably creates some confusion as to caliber, some references state .32 acp (7.65 mm). Letter from the Museum in Vienna states emphatically that the caliber of the assassination weapon was 9mm kurz.
1918 Portugal Lisbon, Portugal President Sidónio Pais José Júlio da Costa Pistol
1919 Mexico Ciudad Ayala, Mexico General Emiliano Zapata Jesús Guajardo and subordinates Several rifles Guajardo was an officer in the Mexican Army who, on the orders of General Pablo González Garza, was ordered to pretend to lead his men to defect to Zapata's forces, and then kill Zapata. The assassination was therefore carried out with Guajardo's soldiers' service rifles.
1922 Germany Berlin, Germany Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau Erwin Kern MP 18 submachine gun
1922 Poland Warsaw, Poland President Gabriel Narutowicz Eligiusz Niewiadomski Revolver.
1932 France Paris, France President Paul Doumer Paul Gorguloff FN Model 1910
1933 United States Miami, United States Anton Cermak, mayor of Chicago, during possible attempted assassination of Franklin D. Roosevelt Giuseppe Zangara .32 S&W revolver by the United States Revolver Company[17] On arriving in Miami, Zangara purchased the revolver for $8 from a pawnshop, along with ten cartridges.[18]
1933 Peru Lima, Peru President Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro Abelardo de Mendoza Browning semi-automatic pistol[19]
1934 France Marseille, France King Alexander I of Yugoslavia Vlado Chernozemski Mauser pistol[20]
1934 Soviet Union Leningrad, Soviet Union Sergei Kirov Leonid Nikolayev Nagant M1895 revolver
1935 United States Baton Rouge, United States Senator Huey Long Carl Weiss FN Model 1910 .32 ACP semi-auto pistol[21]
1938 France Paris, France Ernst vom Rath Herschel Grynszpan 6.35mm five-shot "hammerless" revolver[22] Purchased for 210 francs and a box of 25 bullets for 35 francs.[23]
1940 United Kingdom London, United Kingdom Michael O'Dwyer Udham Singh Revolver Singh had purchased the revolver from a soldier in a pub.[24]
1942 France Paris, France Admiral François Darlan Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle 7.65mm French "Ruby" pistol[25]
1944 Egypt Cairo, Egypt Resident Minister Lord Moyne Eliyahu Hakim Nagant revolver[26]
1948 India New Delhi, India Mahatma Gandhi Nathuram Godse .380 ACP Beretta 1934 pistol
1959 Sri Lanka Colombo, Ceylon Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike Talduwe Somarama Thero .45 Webley Mark VI revolver
1963 United States Dallas, United States President John F. Kennedy Lee Harvey Oswald Italian military rifle, 6.5mm Carcano Model 91/38
1965 United States New York City, United States Malcolm X Talmadge Hayer, William 25X Bradley, and others one sawed off shotgun, M1911A1 and a semi automatic handgun
1968 United States Memphis, United States Martin Luther King Jr. James Earl Ray Remington 760 Gamemaster chambered in .30-06 Springfield Ray initially purchased an identical model in .243 Winchester, but returned it as too weak for his purposes.[27]
1968 United States Los Angeles, United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy Sirhan Sirhan Eight-shot Iver Johnson .22 calibre Cadet 55-A revolver Serial number H-53725, Trial-People's Exhibit #6, misidentified in trial testimony as S/N H-18602
1969 Somalia Las Anod, Somalia President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke Bodyguard "Automatic rifle"[28]
1975 Saudi Arabia Riyadh, Saudi Arabia King Faisal of Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Musaid Revolver[29]
1978 United States San Francisco, United States George Moscone and Harvey Milk Dan White .38 Special S&W Chiefs Special snub-nosed revolver[30] White, a former policeman, wielded the revolver he used to carry on the job.[31]
1979 South Korea Seoul, South Korea President Park Chung-hee Kim Jae-gyu Walther PPK .32 ACP[32]
1980 United States New York City, United States John Lennon Mark Chapman .38 Special Charter Arms snubnosed revolver Purchased at J&S Sales in Honolulu, Hawaii for $169[33]
1981 Egypt Cairo, Egypt President Anwar El Sadat Khalid Islambouli and co-conspirators Egyptian-issue AK-47 rifles One of the guns used in the killing had "In the name of Allah the avenger" inscribed on its barrel.[34]
1983 Philippines Manila, Philippines Benigno Aquino Jr. Disputed Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver It was reported that the manufacturer had shipped the pistol to the Thai National Trading Co. in Bangkok on September 25, 1970.
1984 United States Denver, United States Alan Berg Members of the white nationalist group The Order Ingram MAC-10 pistol[35] The gun was illegally converted from semi to fully automatic[36]
1984 India New Delhi, India Prime Minister Indira Gandhi Bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh .38 Special service revolver, 9mm SAF carbine (Indian-produced Sterling submachine gun)[37] Beant fired five shots from his service revolver, and Satwant followed with 25 shots of the carbine.[38]
1986 Sweden Stockholm, Sweden Prime Minister Olof Palme Unknown .357 Magnum revolver The shooter was never identified.
1992 Algeria Annaba, Algeria President-elect Mohamed Boudiaf Lambarek Boumaarafi Submachine gun
1993 South Africa Boksburg, South Africa Chris Hani Janusz Waluś Z-88 9mm pistol
1994 Mexico Tijuana, Mexico Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta Mario Aburto Martínez (disputed) .38 Taurus Model 85 revolver Colosio was gunned down after a campaign speech rally in the Lomas Tairinas neighborhood of Tijuana. Police and government officials put Aburto as the main shooter but the latter claims others were involved but were never questioned.
1995 United States Corpus Christi, Texas, United States Selena Quintanilla-Pérez Yolanda Saldívar .38 Taurus Model 85 revolver
1995 Israel Tel Aviv, Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin Yigal Amir Beretta 84F semi-automatic pistol
1999 Armenia Yerevan, Armenia Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan Nairi Hunanyan and co-conspirators Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle
2000 Greece Athens, Greece Brigadier Stephen Saunders Members of the Marxist group 17 November .45 Colt M1911 pistol
2001 Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent-Désiré Kabila Rashidi Mizele Revolver
2002 Netherlands Hilversum, Netherlands Pim Fortuyn Volkert van der Graaf Star Firestar semi-automatic pistol
2003 Serbia and Montenegro Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić Zvezdan Jovanović Heckler & Koch G3 rifle Fired from a window 180m away.[39]
2004 Netherlands Amsterdam, Netherlands Theo van Gogh Mohammed Bouyeri HS2000 semi-automatic pistol[40]
2004 United States Columbus, Ohio, United States "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott Nathan Gale Beretta 92FS pistol
2009 United Arab Emirates Dubai, United Arab Emirates Sulim Yamadayev Unknown Makarov pistol The gold-plated pistol was left at the scene.[41]
2011 Philippines

Caloocan, Philippines

Reynaldo Dagsa Arnel Buenaflor .9mm pistol The pistol was sold back to the dealer the day after the murder.[42]
2012 Puerto Rico Bayamon, Puerto Rico Hector "Macho" Camacho Five people have been arrested and accused of his murder[43] Firearm
2015 United Kingdom Belfast, United Kingdom Gerard "Jock" Davison Unknown Makarov pistol The PSNI reported that the use of a Makarov was "unusual"[44]
2016 United States Orlando, Florida, United States Christina Grimmie Kevin Loibl Glock 19 Gen 4 9mm pistol
2016 United Kingdom

Birstall, United Kingdom

Jo Cox Thomas Mair Weihrauch .22 shotgun[45]
2016 Turkey Ankara, Turkey Andrei Karlov Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş Canik 55 TP9 handgun Altıntaş was an off duty police officer and used his service weapon in the attack.
2019 Puerto Rico Gurabo, Puerto Rico Jose Garcia Cosme Unknown Firearm
2022 Japan Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan Shinzo Abe Tetsuya Yamagami Improvised firearm
2023 Ecuador Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador Fernando Villavicencio Colombian hitmen[46] .9mm pistol

References

  1. ^ "November 13 - Murder by pistol". Tudor Society. 13 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Camden author says world's first assassination by firearm may have happened in London". Ham & High. 30 November 2020.
  3. ^ Bruce Durie; Dr Bruce Durie (29 February 2012). Bloody Scottish History: Glasgow. History Press Limited. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-7524-8313-9.
  4. ^ A. D. Harvey (1 July 1993). Collision of Empires: Britain in Three World Wars, 1793-1945. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 163. ISBN 978-1-4411-5049-3.
  5. ^ David C. Hanrahan (30 November 2011). Assassination of the Prime Minister: John Bellingham and the Murder of Spencer Perceval. History Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-7524-7805-0.
  6. ^ "Pistols From a Final Duel Are Sold for $34,500". New York Times. Associated Press. 26 November 1988. Archived from the original on 27 September 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
  7. ^ Spaight, George. Ottawa Times, Trial of Patrick J. Whelan for the murder of the Hon. Thos. D'Arcy McGee Archived 4 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, 1868
  8. ^ George Fetherling (16 November 2011). The Book of Assassins. Random House of Canada. p. 623. ISBN 978-0-307-36909-3.
  9. ^ Canadian Saturday Night: A Magazine of Business & National Affairs. Parkan Publications. 1972. p. 42. disgruntled Globe boiler attendant hanged for cancelling Brown's subscription with a Colt revolver
  10. ^ "Particulars of the Killing of Col. Tison". The Daily Memphis Avalanche. Vol. XXVI, no. 141. Memphis, Tennessee. 16 December 1882. p. 4. Retrieved 28 June 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "$4.50 in 1901 → 2023 | Inflation Calculator".
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  14. ^ Mendo Castro Henriques (2008). Dossier regicídio: o processo desaparecido. Tribuna da história. p. 252. ISBN 9789728799786. O aparelho de pontaria dos primeiros exemplares tinha uma alça móvel, graduada, característica da Winchester. ... A munição desenvolvida especificamente para esta arma, calibre .351, era composta por um invólucro em latão, direito, com meio-rebordo (ha(f ... A carabina empregue no regicidio por Manuel Buíça e que esteve em exposição no efémero Museu da Revolução, possuía o número 2137
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  22. ^ Earle Rice (1998). The Final Solution. Lucent Books. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-56006-095-6.
  23. ^ Gerald Schwab (1 January 1990). The Day the Holocaust Began: The Odyssey of Herschel Grynszpan. Praeger. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-275-93576-4.
  24. ^ The Murders of the Black Museum: 1870–1970 ISBN 978-1-854-71160-1 p. 365
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  27. ^ John Larry Ray; Lyndon Barsten (1 April 2008). Truth at last: the untold story of James Earl Ray and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Lyons Press. ISBN 978-1-59921-284-5. Archived from the original on 23 July 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  28. ^ Africa Contemporary Record: Annual Survey and Documents. Africana Publishing Company. 1970. pp. B–174. Archived from the original on 3 September 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  29. ^ Andrew Scott Cooper (9 August 2011). The Oil Kings: How the U.S., Iran, and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East. Simon and Schuster. pp. 246–. ISBN 978-1-4391-5713-8. Archived from the original on 16 February 2017. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  30. ^ Randy Shilts (14 October 2008). The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk. St. Martin's Press. p. 263. ISBN 978-1-4668-2967-1.
  31. ^ California. New West Communications Corporation. July 1983. p. 64.
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  33. ^ Peter Brown; Steven S. Gaines (1983). The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles. New American Library. pp. 403–. ISBN 978-0-451-20735-7. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  34. ^ Steve Bruce (2008). Fundamentalism. Polity. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-7456-4076-1.
  35. ^ Erik Larson (27 July 2011). Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-307-80331-3.
  36. ^ Danny Coulson; Elaine Shannon (2001). No Heroes: Inside the FBI's Secret Counter-terror Force. Simon and Schuster. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-671-02062-0.
  37. ^ The Criminal Law Journal: A Monthly Legal Publication Containing Full Reports of All Reported Criminal Cases of the High Courts, Etc., in India. W.R. Rayandekar or Congress Nagar. 1989. pp. 10–11.
  38. ^ Asian Recorder. K. K. Thomas at Recorder Press. 1985.
  39. ^ UNMIK DPI Foreign Media Monitoring Archived 18 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine, 26 March 2003
  40. ^ Rosi Braidotti; Charles Esche; Maria Hlavajova (2007). Citizens and Subjects: The Netherlands, for Example : a Critical Reader. JRP/Ringier. p. 217. ISBN 978-3-905770-73-5.
  41. ^ Robert W. Schaefer (31 October 2010). The Insurgency in Chechnya and the North Caucasus: From Gazavat to Jihad. ABC-CLIO. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-313-38635-0.
  42. ^ Laude, Pete (9 January 2011). "Dagsa murder not about revenge". Philstar Global.
  43. ^ "Acusan a 5 por asesinato del boxeador Héctor Camacho". Los Angeles Times. 9 March 2022.
  44. ^ "'Jock' Davison shot with Soviet-style gun, say Northern Ireland police". TheGuardian.com. 26 May 2015.
  45. ^ Beever, Susie (10 October 2020). "Investigation into how Thomas Mair acquired gun used to kill Jo Cox officially shelved". The Yorkshire Post.
  46. ^ Valencia, Alexandra (11 August 2023). "Fernando Villavicencio assassination: suspects are Colombian, police say". Reuters. Archived from the original on 11 August 2023. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
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