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 | 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 | Linlithgow, Scotland | James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland | James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh | Matchlock carbine [3] | |
1584 | Delft, Netherlands | William the Silent, Prince of Orange | Balthasar Gerard | Wheellock pistol | |
1792 | Stockholm, Sweden | Gustav III. King of Sweden | Jacob Johan Anckarström | Flintlock pistol | |
1812 | 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] |
1830 | São Paulo, São Paulo Province, Empire of Brazil | Libero Bardaró | Disputed | Blunderbuss | |
1859 | Senator David C. Broderick | David S. Terry | .58 caliber pistol [6] | Killed in a duel after his pistol failed to fire. | |
1865 | Washington, D.C., United States | President Abraham Lincoln | John Wilkes Booth | .44 calibre muzzleloading derringer by Henry Deringer | |
1868 | Ottawa, Canada | Thomas D'Arcy McGee | MP Patrick J. Whelan | .32 rimfire Smith & Wesson Army revolver [7] [8] | |
1880 | Toronto, Canada | George Brown, Premier of Canada West | George Bennett (murderer) | "Colt revolver" [9] | |
1881 | Washington, D.C., United States | President James A. Garfield | Charles Guiteau | .44 caliber British bulldog revolver | |
1882 | 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 | Tehran, Persia | Shah Naser al-Din Shah Qajar of Persia | Mirza Reza Kermani | Revolver | |
1897 | Madrid, Spain | Prime Minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo | Michele Angiolillo | 11.17mm Webley British Bulldog revolver [11] | |
1897 | Rio de Janeiro, Federal District of Brazil, Brazil | Carlos Machado de Bittencourt | Marcelino Bispo de Melo | Garrucha | |
1900 | Monza, Italy | King Umberto I of Italy | Gaetano Bresci | .32 S&W Iver-Johnson revolver | |
1901 | 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) [12] ) 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. [13] |
1903 | Belgrade, Serbia | King Alexander I of Serbia | Mihailo Ristić-Džervinac | Revolver | |
1904 | Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland | General Nikolay Bobrikov | Eugen Schauman | FN Browning M1900 [14] | |
1907 | Sofia, Bulgaria | Prime Minister Dimitar Petkov | Alexander Petrov | Pistol | |
1908 | Lisbon, Portugal | King Carlos I of Portugal | Manuel Buíça | Winchester Model 1907 semi-automatic carbine chambered in .351 WSL | Serial number 2137, [15] imported from Germany by Heitor Ferreira. [16] |
1908 | Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil | José Plácido de Castro | Unknown | Firearm | |
1909 | London, United Kingdom | Curzon Wyllie | Madan Lal Dhingra | Colt revolver [17] | |
1909 | Harbin, China | Resident-General Itō Hirobumi | An Jung-geun | FN M1900 pistol[ citation needed ] | |
1913 | Thessaloniki, Greece | King George I of Greece | Alexandros Schinas | Revolver. | |
1914 | Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary | Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria | Gavrilo Princip | FN M1910 .380 ACP pistol [18] | 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 (9mm 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 (7.65mm). Letter from the Museum in Vienna states emphatically that the caliber of the assassination weapon was 9mm Kurz. |
1918 | Lisbon, Portugal | President Sidónio Pais | José Júlio da Costa | Pistol | |
1919 | 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 | Berlin, Germany | Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau | Erwin Kern | MP 18 submachine gun | |
1922 | Warsaw, Poland | President Gabriel Narutowicz | Eligiusz Niewiadomski | Revolver | |
1923 | Prague, Czechoslovakia | Minister for Finance Alois Rašín | Josef Šoupal | Pistol | |
1929 | Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil | José Gomes Duarte | Moacir de Almeida | Pistol | |
1929 | Rio de Janeiro, Federal District of Brazil, Brazil | Manuel Francisco de Sousa Filho | Ildefonso Simões Lopes | Firearm | |
1930 | Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil | João Pessoa Cavalcânti de Albuquerque | João Duarte Dantas | Revolver | |
1932 | Paris, France | President Paul Doumer | Paul Gorguloff | FN Model 1910 | |
1933 | 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 [19] | On arriving in Miami, Zangara purchased the revolver for $8 from a pawnshop, along with ten cartridges. [20] |
1933 | Lima, Peru | President Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro | Abelardo de Mendoza | Browning semi-automatic pistol [21] | |
1934 | Vienna, Austria | Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss | Otto Planetta | Firearm | |
1934 | Marseille, France | King Alexander I of Yugoslavia | Vlado Chernozemski | Mauser pistol [22] | |
1934 | Leningrad, Soviet Union | Sergei Kirov | Leonid Nikolayev | Nagant M1895 revolver | |
1935 | Baton Rouge, United States | Senator Huey Long | Carl Weiss | FN Model 1910 .32 ACP semi-auto pistol [23] | |
1938 | Poço Redondo, Sergipe, Brazil | Virgulino Ferreira da Silva "Lampião" | Unknown | Bergmann MP-35 submachine gun | |
1938 | Poço Redondo, Sergipe, Brazil | Maria Gomes de Oliveira "Maria Bonita" | José Panta de Godoy | Bergmann MP-35 submachine gun | |
1938 | Paris, France | Ernst vom Rath | Herschel Grynszpan | 6.35mm five-shot "hammerless" revolver [24] | Purchased for 210 francs and a box of 25 bullets for 35 francs. [25] |
1940 | London, United Kingdom | Michael O'Dwyer | Udham Singh | Smith & Wesson Triple Lock revolver [26] | Singh had purchased the revolver from a soldier in a pub. [27] |
1942 | Paris, France | Admiral François Darlan | Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle | 7.65mm French "Ruby" pistol [28] | |
1944 | Cairo, Egypt | Resident Minister Lord Moyne | Eliyahu Hakim | Nagant revolver [29] | |
1948 | New Delhi, India | Mahatma Gandhi | Nathuram Godse | .380 ACP Beretta 1934 pistol | |
1951 | East Jerusalem, West Bank | King Abdullah I of Jordan | Mustafa Shukri Ashu | Revolver | |
1951 | Rawalpindi, Pakistan | Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan | Said Akbar Babrak | Mauser C96 | |
1959 | Colombo, Ceylon | Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike | Talduwe Somarama Thero | .45 Webley Mark VI revolver | |
1963 | Dallas, United States | President John F. Kennedy | Lee Harvey Oswald | Italian military rifle, 6.5mm Carcano Model 91/38 | |
1964 | Ceres, Goiás, Brazil | Adib Shishakli | Nawaf Ghazaleh | Pistol | |
1965 | New York City, United States | Malcolm X | Talmadge Hayer, William 25X Bradley, and others | one sawed off shotgun, M1911A1 and another semi automatic handgun | |
1968 | 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. [30] |
1968 | 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 | Las Anod, Somalia | President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke | Bodyguard | "Automatic rifle" [31] | |
1975 | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | King Faisal of Saudi Arabia | Faisal bin Musaid | Revolver [32] | |
1978 | San Francisco, United States | George Moscone and Harvey Milk | Dan White | .38 Special S&W Chiefs Special snub-nosed revolver [33] | White, a former policeman, wielded the revolver he used to carry on the job. [34] |
1979 | Seoul, South Korea | President Park Chung-hee | Kim Jae-gyu | Walther PPK .32 ACP and Smith & Wesson Model 36 .38 Special [35] | After his Walther PPK jammed, Kim retrieved a .38 revolver from his subordinate to kill Park. |
1980 | 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 [36] |
1981 | 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. [37] |
1983 | 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 | Denver, United States | Alan Berg | Members of the white nationalist group The Order | Ingram MAC-10 pistol [38] | The gun was illegally converted from semi to fully automatic [39] |
1984 | 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) [40] | Beant fired five shots from his service revolver, and Satwant followed with 25 shots of the carbine. [41] |
1986 | Stockholm, Sweden | Prime Minister Olof Palme | Unknown | .357 Magnum revolver | The shooter was never identified. |
1986 | Imperatriz, Maranhão, Brazil | Josimo Morais Tavares | Geraldo Rodrigues da Costa | Firearm | |
1988 | Xapuri, Acre, Brazil | Francisco Alves "Chico" Mendes Filho | Darci Alves da Silva | 20-gauge shotgun (maker and model unknown) | |
1992 | São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil | Governor Edmundo Pinto | Unknown | Firearm | |
1992 | Annaba, Algeria | President-elect Mohamed Boudiaf | Lambarek Boumaarafi | Submachine gun | |
1993 | Boksburg, South Africa | Chris Hani | Janusz Waluś | Z-88 9mm pistol | |
1994 | 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 | Corpus Christi, Texas, United States | Selena Quintanilla-Pérez | Yolanda Saldívar | .38 Taurus Model 85 revolver | |
1995 | Tel Aviv, Israel | Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin | Yigal Amir | Beretta 84F semi-automatic pistol | |
1996 | Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil | Paulo César Farias | Unknown | Rossi model 874 .38 Special revolver | |
1999 | Yerevan, Armenia | Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan | Nairi Hunanyan and co-conspirators | Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle | |
2000 | Athens, Greece | Brigadier Stephen Saunders | Members of the Marxist group 17 November | .45 Colt M1911 pistol | |
2001 | Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo | President Laurent-Désiré Kabila | Rashidi Mizele | Revolver | |
2001 | Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil | Antonio da Costa Santos | Unknown | Firearm | |
2001 | Governador Dix-Sept Rosado, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil | Aguinaldo Pereira da Silva | Disputed | ArmaLite AR-15 | |
2002 | Juquitiba, São Paulo, Brazil | Celso Daniel | Unknown | Firearm | |
2002 | Hilversum, Netherlands | Pim Fortuyn | Volkert van der Graaf | Star Firestar semi-automatic pistol | |
2003 | Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro | Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić | Zvezdan Jovanović | Heckler & Koch G3 rifle | Fired from a window 180m away. [42] |
2004 | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Theo van Gogh | Mohammed Bouyeri | HS2000 semi-automatic pistol [43] | |
2004 | Columbus, Ohio, United States | "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott | Nathan Gale | Beretta 92FS pistol | |
2005 | Anapu, Pará, Brazil | Dorothy Stang | Raifran das Neves Sales | Firearm | |
2009 | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | Sulim Yamadayev | Unknown | Makarov pistol | The gold-plated pistol was left at the scene. [44] |
2010 | Jandira, São Paulo, Brazil | Walderi Braz Paschoalin | Unknown | AK-47 | |
2011 | Reynaldo Dagsa | Arnel Buenaflor | 9mm pistol | The pistol was sold back to the dealer the day after the murder. [45] | |
2012 | Bayamon, Puerto Rico | Hector "Macho" Camacho | Five people have been arrested and accused of his murder [46] | Firearm | |
2015 | Belfast, United Kingdom | Gerard "Jock" Davison | Unknown | Makarov pistol | The PSNI reported that the use of a Makarov was "unusual" [47] |
2016 | Orlando, Florida, United States | Christina Grimmie | Kevin Loibl | Glock 19 Gen 4 9mm pistol | |
2016 | Jo Cox | Thomas Mair | Weihrauch .22 shotgun [48] | ||
2016 | Itumbiara, Goiás, Brazil | José Gomes da Rocha | Gilberto Ferreira do Amaral | Pistol | |
2016 | 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. |
2018 | Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Marielle Franco | Ronald Paulo Alves Pereira and Adriano Magalhães da Nóbrega | Heckler & Koch MP5 | |
2018 | Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil | Gerson Camata | Marcos Vinícius Moreira Andrade | Firearm | [49] |
2019 | Gurabo, Puerto Rico | Jose Garcia Cosme | Unknown | Firearm | |
2019 | Araribóia Indigenous Territory, Maranhão, Brazil | Paulo Paulino Guajajara | Illegal loggers | Firearm | |
2022 | Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan | Shinzo Abe | Tetsuya Yamagami | Improvised firearm | |
2023 | Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador | Fernando Villavicencio | Colombian hitmen [50] | 9mm pistol | |
2023 | Simões Filho, Bahia, Brazil | Mãe Bernadete | Unknown | Firearm | [51] |
The Uzi is a family of Israeli open-bolt, blowback-operated submachine guns and machine pistols first designed by Major Uziel "Uzi" Gal in the late 1940s, shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel. It is one of the first weapons to incorporate a telescoping bolt design, which allows the magazine to be housed in the pistol grip for a shorter weapon.
The Colt M1911 is a single-action, recoil-operated, semi-automatic pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. The pistol's formal U.S. military designation as of 1940 was Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911 for the original model adopted in March 1911, and Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911A1 for the improved M1911A1 model which entered service in 1926. The designation changed to Pistol, Caliber .45, Automatic, M1911A1 in the Vietnam War era.
Glock Ges.m.b.H. is a light weapons manufacturer headquartered in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria, named after its founder, Gaston Glock. The company makes popular polymer-framed pistols, but also produces field knives, entrenching tools, various horse related products, and apparel.
A derringer is a small handgun that is neither a revolver, semi-automatic pistol, nor machine pistol. It is not to be confused with mini-revolvers or pocket pistols, although some later derringers were manufactured with the pepperbox configuration. The modern derringer is often multi barreled, and is generally the smallest usable handgun of any given caliber and barrel length due to the lack of a moving action, which takes up more space behind the barrel. It is frequently used by women because it is easily concealable in a purse or a stocking.
The Beretta 92 is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and manufactured by Beretta of Italy. The Beretta 92 was designed in 1975, and production began in 1976. Many variants in several calibers continue to be used to the present.
The 9×19mm Parabellum is a rimless, centerfire, tapered firearms cartridge.
The Walther PP series pistols are blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols, developed by the German arms manufacturer Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen.
The Heckler & Koch UMP is a submachine gun developed and manufactured by Heckler & Koch. Heckler & Koch developed the UMP as a lighter and cheaper successor to the MP5, though both remain in production. The UMP has been adopted for use by various countries including Brazil, Canada, and the United States. Some of the weapons saw limited service in the early years of the Iraqi insurgency, making them one of the more popular submachine guns being deployed by the U.S. military personnel in recent conflicts around the world.
A Kropatschek is any variant of a rifle designed by Alfred von Kropatschek. Kropatschek's rifles used a tubular magazine of his design, of the same type used in the Japanese Murata Type 22 and the German Mauser Gewehr 1871/84. While designed for black powder, the Kropatschek action proved to be strong enough to handle smokeless powder.
The FN Browning M1900 is a single action semi-automatic pistol designed c. 1896 by John Browning for Fabrique Nationale de Herstal (FN) and produced in Belgium at the turn of the 20th century. It was the first production handgun to use a slide.
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948 at age 78 in the compound of The Birla House, a large mansion in central New Delhi. His assassin was Nathuram Godse, from Pune, Maharashtra, a Hindutva activist, a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu paramilitary organization as well as a member of the Hindu Mahasabha.
The FN Model 1910 is a blowback-operated, semi-automatic pistol designed by John Browning and manufactured by Fabrique Nationale of Belgium.
The FN Model 1903, or Browning No.2 is a semi-automatic pistol designed by John Browning and manufactured by Belgian arms manufacturer Fabrique Nationale (FN). It was introduced in 1903 and fired the 9×20mmSR Browning Long cartridge. It should not be confused with the US-made Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless, nor with the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer. The FN Model 1903 is based on the same mechanical design as the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless, which Browning sold to both companies, but enlarged to handle the more powerful 9mm Browning Long cartridge. The M1903's reliability, accuracy, light weight, and quick reloading made it a popular service pistol for many police forces and militaries. The pistol was initially introduced by FN as the Browning Modèle de Guerre or Browning Grand Modèle.
Glock is a brand of polymer-framed, short-recoil-operated, striker-fired, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H.
The Lisbon Regicide or Regicide of 1908 was the assassination of King Carlos I of Portugal and the Algarves and his heir-apparent, Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal, by assassins sympathetic to Republican interests and aided by elements within the Portuguese Carbonária, disenchanted politicians and anti-monarchists. The events occurred on 1 February 1908 at the Square of Commerce along the banks of the Tagus River in Lisbon, commonly referred to by its antiquated name Terreiro do Paço.
Manuel dos Reis da Silva Buíça was a Portuguese schoolteacher and soldier involved in the regicide of King Carlos I of Portugal and Prince Royal, Luís Filipe, during the events that became known as the Lisbon Regicide.
Alfredo Luís da Costa was a Portuguese publicist, editor, journalist, shop assistant and salesman who was part of the Portuguese Carbonária and a Mason, best remembered for being one of the two assassins credited in the assassination of King Carlos I of Portugal and the Prince Royal, Luis Filipe, during the events that became known as the 1908 Lisbon Regicide, ultimately leading to his death.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), 1868disgruntled Globe boiler attendant hanged for cancelling Brown's subscription with a Colt revolver
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
Então já o Sr. Heitor Ferreira confessa 'ter importado a carabina do regicida Buíça', dourando essa confissão, com a atenuante de a ter 'vendido