The Guns That Shot US Presidents

Of the five sitting U.S. presidents who have been shot, only one survived; that was Ronald Reagan. The other four, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy, died. Other future and former presidents were shot before or after their time in office. Now raise your hand if you’ve thought about the guns that shot U.S. presidents. We know that we haven’t, other than the sensationalism that surrounded some of them: the Kennedy assassination hype and the Brady Bill after Reagan was shot. So what about the guns that were used?

Musket Ball at Trenton

Long before James Monroe entered the White House, he nearly died in the Revolutionary War. On December 26, 1776, the 18-year-old lieutenant was fighting at the Battle of Trenton when a musket ball struck his shoulder. The accounts we found do not identify the exact weapon that fired it.

The wound damaged an artery, and Dr. John Riker treated him on the field. Monroe recovered, returned to service, and became the fifth U.S. president in 1817.

Charles Dickinson’s Dueling Pistol

Before he became president, Andrew Jackson was shot more than once. In 1806, an argument with Charles Dickinson over a horse race escalated into a duel in Kentucky. Dickinson fired the first shot and struck Jackson in the chest.

Jackson fired back and killed Dickinson. He lived through it, with the bullet remaining in his body. The sources say Dickinson’s weapon was a pistol, but they do not name its make or model.

The Pistol in the Jackson and Benton Fight

Seven years on from the Dickinson duel, Jackson found himself shot once more. On this occasion, the dispute started with an argument that drew in Thomas Hart Benton and his brother Jesse. On September 4, 1813, it escalated into a brawl at a hotel in Nashville.

Jackson’s left arm and shoulder were severely wounded by a pistol shot. There is disagreement about which of the Benton brothers pulled the trigger, and the type of pistol used remains uncertain. In 1832, during his presidency, a surgeon took a bullet out of Jackson’s arm.

Musket at South Mountain

When Rutherford B. Hayes was struck at the Battle of South Mountain in Maryland on September 14, 1862, he was serving in the Union Army. A musket ball hit his left arm above the elbow, breaking the bone.

For a while Hayes remained on the field until his men carried him off. A doctor—his brother-in-law—treated the wound, and Hayes was able to keep the arm. Later he went back to the army, and in 1877 he became president. Which musket fired that shot remains unknown.

Unidentified Gun at Kernstown

On July 24, 1864, Hayes sustained another wound at the Second Battle of Kernstown in Virginia. During the fighting, a bullet struck his shoulder, and his horse was shot as well. Union troops were compelled to retreat by the Confederate assault.

We were unable to identify with any confidence the gun from which the bullet was fired. After this wound, Hayes remained in the army and kept serving.

Unidentified Gun at Cedar Creek

At the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, Hayes once again came close to disaster. The horse he was riding was struck by gunfire and collapsed under him, sending him to the ground. A spent bullet also hit him in the head.

Two days afterward, Hayes informed his uncle in a letter that his injuries were not serious. The reports never say which gun fired that bullet, yet they leave no doubt that this was an incident distinct from the wounds he had suffered before.

.44 Caliber Derringer

Now we come to the first sitting president to be shot. Abraham Lincoln was shot in 1865, shortly after the Civil War ended, by John Wilkes Booth. Most people know that, however, the gun was used as a single-shot .44-caliber Derringer. This gun was 6 inches long with a 2 ½ barrel and only weighed about eight ounces.

Derringers were used as personal protection guns since their small size made them easy to hide. The Derringer used to kill Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre is, interestingly enough, housed in the museum basement of Ford’s Theatre.

British Bull Dog Revolver

When James Garfield was President, there was no Secret Service like there is today. Presidents walked around with people all the time, and police were used to keep them back sometimes or as crowd control. This is what made it easy for Charles J. Guiteau to assassinate Garfield in 1881. Guiteau used a British Bull Dog revolver to shoot the President twice at close range in a railroad station.

One bullet only grazed Garfield’s shoulder, but the other one, the fatal one, hit him in the back, missing his spinal cord, although it passed the first lumbar vertebra and lodged behind his pancreas. The British Bull Dog was a popular pocket revolver that came in several calibers; the one used on Garfield was a .44-caliber revolver. They were designed to be carried in a coat pocket and thus concealable.

.32 Caliber Iver Johnson

It took two shots from a .32-caliber Iver-Johnson revolver to assassinate William McKinley. He was shot on September 6, 1901, in the late afternoon by Leon Czolgosz during public handshaking at the Temple of Music building. Iver-Johnson was a U.S. company that not only manufactured firearms but also bicycles and motorcycles. It is said that one bullet ricocheted off a button and landed in the President’s clothing. The other bullet, however, went through his stomach and damaged tissue near his pancreas and kidney.

Doctors performed surgery, but McKinley died of gangrene on September 14, eight days after the shooting. Interestingly enough, Iver-Johnson also made American copies of British Bull Dog guns similar to the ones used to kill James Garfield.

.38 Caliber Colt Revolver

By the time John Schrank shot Theodore Roosevelt in Milwaukee on October 14, 1912, Roosevelt had already departed from the White House. Roosevelt was running for another term, and Schrank opened fire while he stood in an open car outside a hotel. According to the Milwaukee Police Historical Society, the gun used was a .38 caliber Colt Police Positive Special revolver.

Before coming to rest in his chest, the bullet traveled through a steel glass case and a folded copy of Roosevelt’s speech. Roosevelt proceeded to give the speech and only then went to get medical attention. The doctors chose to leave the bullet where it was, and he kept it with him for the remainder of his life.

6.5 mm Carcano Model 91/38

1963 brought the shocking death of beloved President John F. Kennedy. It is widely accepted that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin, but there are still conspiracy theories about the assassination. The National Archives has released many related records, including additional files in 2025 and 2026. Oswald purchased a rifle and a revolver, but the rifle was the weapon used on the President.

The rifle, a 6.5 mm Carcano Model 91/38, is worth looking at because it was an uncommon gun. Italy began manufacturing the 6.5 mm M91/41 after the M91/38 went into production. After introducing a 7.35 mm version in 1938, Italy resumed making the short rifle for 6.5×52 mm ammunition around 1940. This bolt-action weapon did utilize a clip for the ammunition, similar to the Austrian Mannlicher clips. The rifle was considered a short-style weapon.

.22 Caliber Rohm RG-14

Just 69 days into his Presidency, Ronald Reagan was shot at by John Hinckley, Jr., six times. None of the bullets were fatal to the President in 1981, despite the punctured lung and heavy internal bleeding he suffered. No bullet struck Reagan directly; the final shot ricocheted off the limousine and hit the President under his arm.

Hinckley bought the revolver at a pawn shop in Dallas. Three of the other five bullets fired from the Rohm RG-14 .22-caliber revolver hit other men. All three survived the shooting. White House Press Secretary James Brady was shot in the head and left with a permanent disability. He and his wife Sarah later campaigned for the Brady Bill, which was signed into law in 1993. Brady died in 2014, and a medical examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by the 1981 gunshot wound. The Rohm RG-14 was a small, inexpensive revolver.

DPMS A-15 Rifle

On July 13, 2024, while Donald Trump was addressing a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, a gunman opened fire from a rooftop close by. Trump, who was a former president at the time, was hit in the ear. He made it through and went on to return to the presidency in 2025.

The FBI named the gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks and the rifle as a DPMS Panther Arms A-15. In the shooting, rally attendee Corey Comperatore was killed, and two other spectators, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, were wounded.

Several of the guns used against sitting presidents were handguns; Kennedy’s assassin used a rifle. Then again, maybe since a handgun is easier to get close to someone with than a rifle. This sums up our list of the guns that have shot U.S. presidents. Share your feedback in the comments below!