Thinking back a moment, which of these Political Assassinations affected you the most?

In My Humble Opinion
1

This is a list of shootings or assassinations on public officials that I remember personally happening within my own lifetime. My apologies if I missed anyone.

When you were younger, which shooting first really grabbed your attention? When did you find yourself glued to the tv watching the events unfold?

For example, I was still very, very young when JFK died. I may have heard it on tv but was too busy playing blocks or skipping rope to notice. I don’t have a strong first hand impression of seeing those news reports.

The 1960’s and 70’s were a bloody time for the U.S.

Throughout the 70’s it seemed like something happened every election. I learned to sort of hold my breath during an election and prayed that no one would get shot or killed. Looking through this list, you can see why.

Thankfully, there’s a big gap between President Reagan’s shooting and Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

President John F. Kennedy assassinated Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas

**Malcolm X **February 21, 1965 assassinated shot sixteen times

Martin Luther King assassinated April 4, 1968 Lorraine Motel, Memphis

Senator Robert Kennedy assassinated June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles

Alabama Gov. George Wallace May 15, 1972 shot five times and paralyzed for life

President Gerald Ford --Two assassination attempts
occurring within three weeks of each other
September 5, 1975 and September 22, 1975

California Representative Leo Ryan,
his aides and three journalists November 18, 1978 murdered near Jonestown

San Francisco mayor George Moscone
San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk
shot and killed in San Francisco City Hall, November 27, 1978

President Ronald Reagan shot Monday, March 30, 1981

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shot Jan. 8, 2011

2

For me, The murder of Martin Luther King was the first killing that really hit home. I can still vividly recall them breaking into some tv show I was watching and Walter Cronkite announced Martin Luther Kings murder. I saw the picture of the Lorraine Motel for the very first time. Even as a kid I knew we were in deep trouble. I watched the nation burn for the next few days. The Chicago riots were the worst. I thought the whole West Side of Chicago was going to burn. The Baltimore Riot was really bad too. There were others I don’t recall as clearly.

At that time, I felt like we were perilously close to an all out race war. A few more sparks and this whole fucking country would of went up. That’s a lot for a young kid to watch. I’ve never forgot it. One of my passions today is studying the civil rights movement.

I can still remember Robert Kennedy Eulogy at Martin Luther Kings funeral. Two months later I wept as I learned he was murdered too. :frowning:

August 28, 1968 the police riot at the Chicago Democratic Convention. The images of the police beating the shit out of the protesters.

1968 was the year I grew up much earlier than I should have.

3

Mod,
can you fix the thread title. Somehow the end of it got chopped off.

should be …
Thinking back a moment, which of these Political Assassinations affected you the most?

Also, can you correct the typo in the Poll title?
thanks

4

Done, and done.

5

John Kennedy’s assassination was announced at my (Catholic) school. They let us out early, and I immediately dashed home to tell my mother. But the meaning of it didn’t really sink in.

Robert Kennedy’s, on the other hand, I was old enough to grasp the meaning. My parents had only a couple of nights before been to an event of his, and I woke up to find my mother sobbing in front of the television. So that had more of an effect on me.

The others I honestly don’t remember how I felt at the time. I can only view them through how I’ve thought about them since.

6

I hope I don’t screw up the poll, because there is only one on your list that has happened while I was alive. And that very fact is what has affected me most: attempted assassination of a national polical figure mostly seems like a thing of the past.

(At least, I can’t think of any others offhand.)

7

Yitzhak Rabin. It hit me like nothing before or since.

I pass by the spot he was shot about once a week; I always pause a second at the memorial.

8

These are not all assassinations, they are attempts, most successful. In the case of George Wallace, my reaction was “botch job”. Almost the same with Reagan. But certainly, it was the JFK shooting that affected me the most. That weekend my girl-friend and I spent a lot of time just hugging. We were married the following spring and still are.

9

JFK, certainly. I was in high school and it was the first thing of this sort in my life. The school stuck a radio in front of the intercom mic and turned it on without any preamble or warning. The shock was palpable and the weeping girls are burned into my memory.

10

I was going to say that I was alive for the attempt on Reagan, but I was thinking it was 1983, not 1981 so I was wrong. So I’m with BigT on this one and Alessan’s post reminds me that, despite all the heated rhetoric (and more) political assassination seems like something that only happens in other countries.

11

JFK for me also. I was very young, so I think it was more how it affected all the adults around me that has stayed with me. That scared me badly.

12

The first one of these that I remember at all was Ford. I was 8 at the time. One of the attempts occurred here in Sacramento, which is probably the only reason I noticed it; in addition to being a national story, it was also ‘local news’.

The first on that had any sort of impact on me was Reagan. By that time I was old enough to understand exactly what was happening and what the significance was. I remember that it was pretty much the only topic of conversation amongst my friends for a few days.

13

John F. Kennedy because I was 8 at the time, old enough to relize what was going on and he died. I never thought a sitting President could die, let alone be violently murdered. Hasn’t happened since.

14

I am too young for most of these, and I certainly don’t remember it (I was a small baby at the time), but the assassination that most affected my life was that of Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk. Because I grew up in San Francisco - and Dianne Feinstein, who became mayor as a direct result of the assassination - was the mayor when I was a kid. It’s still considered a local tragedy.

15

I was in the 4th grade when Kennedy was assassinated - I can still see the classroom vividly as I sat listening to the announcement that he’d been killed. It was the beginning of the end of my poliical innocence.

At age 9, I believed that a man was elected President because he was the best man in the country. The act of voting affirmed that. So the very idea that someone would kill the best man in the whole country was crushing to me. I think it was also the first time I was really aware of the world outside of my little part of it.

16

I’m 23 and was not alive for any of the attacks in the poll save for the one yesterday. That being said, it has totally thrown me for a loop; it feels surreal, as if this is something that happens in the Third World, but not here. Naive, I suppose.

17

That’s what we thought too, before Rabin. That’s why it had such a strong impact - nothing like that had ever happened here.

18

I picked JFK because it was the first for me and the most significant. I was six, in first grade, and I can still remember how shocked and confused I was. I tried to make sense out of what happened, but my six-year-old mind had a hard time with that.

September 11, 2001, trumps the JFK assassination, though.

19

Right, I remember asking over and over “How can someone kill the President?” as though he was protected by a force field or special shield or something.

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Interesting results so far. :wink:

We often disagree with our politicians, but rarely go beyond heated words.
For many people under 35, the attack on Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is probably the first they experienced in their lifetime.
Even when it happens, it’s usually the result of one extremely deranged person. It’s not any sort of political faction.

As an American I’m very thankful for that.