Some Infamous Guns of History

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Assassinations of national leaders and other high-ranking politicians and celebrities are not only history-making events, they are also history-changing ones as well. We can only speculate at what history would have looked like had these public figures had not been murdered, but for better or for worse, history was definitely altered. Here’s a list of the weapons used in some of the more infamous history-altering public and/or political killings (the official versions anyway); the photos are of the actual weapons used:


Wogdon .544 dueling pistols - These pistols were used by Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton during their famous duel on July 11, 1804, which resulted in Hamilton's death.



 

Philadelphia .41 Derringer - Used by John Wilkes Booth to kill Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865.





Bulldog .44 revolver - Used by Charles Guiteau on President James Garfield on July 2, 1881.


 

Iver Johnson .32 revolver – Used by Leon Czolgosz on President William McKinley on September 6, 1901.




FN M1910 .380 – Used by Gavrilo Princip on Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914, which triggered World War One. This type of pistol was used in a couple of other political killings, by Paul Gorguloff on Paul Doumer, President of France on May 6, 1932, and by Dr. Carl Weiss on Louisiana Governor Huey Long on September 5, 1935.




Carcano 91/38 6.5mm rifle - Used by Lee Harvey Oswald to kill JFK on November 22, 1963.




Remington 760 Gamemaster .30-06 rifle - Used by James Earl Ray to kill MLK on April 4, 1968.


 

Iver Johnson Cadet .22 revolver - Used by Sirhan Sirhan to kill RFK on June 5, 1968.




Dishonorable mention:



Colt M1911 .45 pistol - Used by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme of the Manson family in an attempt on President Gerald Ford's life on September 5, 1975. Fromme's incompetence probably saved Ford's life, as she forgot to chamber a round, which gave the Secret Service time to grab her.





Rohm RG-14 .22 revolver - used by John Hinckley in his assassination attempt of President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981.



In most of these crimes, the perpetrators used cheap, easily available firearms, were inexperienced and unskilled in their use, and killed their victims from point-blank range. Lee Harvey Oswald was a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, which intensely trains its personnel in rifle marksmanship; however, JFK's vehicle, while moving slowly, was less than 100 yards away, which isn't a very challenging shot for a trained shooter, even if the shooter is armed with a low-quality weapon like the Carcano. MLK's killer also was within several dozen yards of his target, and had a high-quality hunting rifle as his weapon.

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