How many assassination attempts against US presidents and major-party nominees have occurred since 1960?
Executive summary
Counting assassination attempts and credible plots against U.S. presidents and major‑party presidential nominees since 1960 depends on definitions, but contemporary summaries list multiple high‑profile attempts: at least the fatal 1968 shooting of Robert F. Kennedy, the 1981 shooting of Ronald Reagan, two attempts on Gerald Ford in 1975 (just before 1960 window but often included in modern timelines), the 1994 White House shooting at Bill Clinton, the 2005 grenade at George W. Bush in Tbilisi (while president), and several violent incidents targeting Donald Trump in 2024–2024/2025 reporting — with outlets describing “multiple” confirmed attempts on Trump and that July 2024’s rally shooting was the first presidential shooting wound since 1981 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. Available sources do not present a single, authoritative tally restricted to “since 1960” that I can cite as definitive [6] [5].
1. What reporters typically count — and why totals vary
News outlets and reference sites compile different tallies because they treat categories differently: “attempts” where a shooter fired at or wounded a president/candidate; “plots” that were foiled before action; and threats or isolated acts at the White House or elsewhere that did not target an individual in proximity. Britannica’s historical roundup and PBS’s timeline list discrete incidents like RFK [7] and Reagan [8] as classically counted attempts, while statistical summaries note that some datasets exclude earlier foiled plots or incidents where the president was not in immediate danger [1] [2] [5].
2. Incidents commonly included since 1960
Major, widely reported events that most outlets include are: Richard Paul Pavlick’s plot against John F. Kennedy in 1960 (abandoned), the assassination of RFK in 1968 (Sirhan Sirhan), the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981 (John Hinckley Jr.), two separate attempts on Gerald Ford in 1975 (Lynette Fromme and Sarah Jane Moore — noted often even when timelines start in 1960 because they’re within modern memory), the 1994 shooting at the White House by Francisco Martin Duran aimed at Clinton, the 2005 grenade attack on George W. Bush in Georgia (failed to detonate), and multiple 21st‑century incidents involving threats or shootings at former/presidential candidates including several against Donald Trump in 2024 [6] [1] [2] [9] [4].
3. How recent coverage changed perceptions after 2024
Reporting around the July 2024 rally shooting boosted media attention on the frequency of attempts. PBS, AP and other outlets noted that the July 2024 wound to Donald Trump was the first time a current or former president was wounded in an assassination attempt since Reagan in 1981, and subsequent coverage catalogued prior attempts and plots against presidents and major candidates [2] [3]. Newsweek and Statista summarized several confirmed attempts on Trump dating to his political life, saying law enforcement verified four public attempts as of late 2024 — illustrating how modern investigations and prosecutions can change which incidents are counted as “attempts” [4] [5].
4. Scholarly and reference tallies: breadth vs. strict counts
Reference compendia like Wikipedia, Britannica, and specialty statistics services provide longer lists that mix assassination plots, direct attempts, and foiled conspiracies; they do not always agree on inclusion criteria [6] [1] [5]. For example, Statista’s charting notes that its count “does not reflect every plot” and focuses on acts where the president was in immediate vicinity of the perpetrator [5]. Scholarly work on historical patterns also counts “plots” over decades and finds different totals depending on time span and definitions [10].
5. What a careful, cited answer would say right now
Because provided sources describe overlapping but not identical lists and explicitly note differing inclusion rules, the safest statement is that multiple assassination attempts and plots involving U.S. presidents and major‑party nominees have occurred since 1960 — including the 1968 RFK assassination, Reagan’s 1981 shooting, the 1994 White House shooter aimed at Clinton, the 2005 grenade at Bush in Georgia, and several incidents involving Donald Trump in 2024 whose reporting describes “multiple” confirmed attempts — but no single authoritative count restricted to “since 1960” is offered by the supplied reporting [1] [2] [3] [9] [4] [5].
6. What readers should watch for in future tallies
When outlets publish a numeric total, check whether they include: aborted plots (like Pavlick’s 1960 plan), assaults on candidates versus presidents, incidents where the target was present, and post‑event reclassifications after prosecutions. The divergence among Wikipedia, Britannica, Statista and major news outlets shows the headline number changes with methodology — reporters and scholars are explicit about those limits in their lists [6] [1] [5].
Limitations: available sources compiled here do not provide one definitive, reconciled count restricted to 1960–present; they present incident lists and note differing inclusion rules, so any precise number would require choosing and citing a definition and reconciling lists across sources [6] [5] [1].