# Vice-Presidents shooting people

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vice-presidents-shooting-people/344197>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 13, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vice-presidents-shooting-people/344197 "2006-02-13T01:20:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Voluble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/4af34b/32.png) [@Voluble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voluble)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vice-presidents-shooting-people/344197/21 "2006-02-14T03:55:43Z")

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The question doesn’t make it clear whether we are interested in Vice Presidents who have shot someone during the course of their lives or whether we are only interested in what they did while they were in office. George the senior for instance fought in World War II. I don’t know if he ever shot another man in combat since the only story that gets wide play is that he survived being shot down.

I am sure there are other VP’s or Presidents themselves who have served.

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**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vice-presidents-shooting-people/344197/22 "2006-02-14T03:57:26Z")

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I was interested only in VPs who shot someone will serving his term as Vice-President. Not before or after.

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vice-presidents-shooting-people/344197/23 "2006-02-14T20:45:17Z")

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I agree: Burr and Cheney are in a class all their own, in that respect.

The AP just posted that Whittington, the lawyer whom Cheney shot, today had a “minor heart attack.” A curious adjective in this context, to say the least. If (God forbid) Whittington were actually to die, _that_ would be an interesting situation. I doubt that Cheney would either be criminally charged, or resign, but you never know…

**Sampiro** has it pretty much right. For interesting retellings of the Burr-Hamilton duel, see either Joseph Ellis’s Pulitzer Prize-winning _Founding Brothers_, or Ron Chernow’s excellent bio _Alexander Hamilton_.

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