<P> Assassination attempts and plots on the President of the United States have been numerous . More than 30 attempts to kill an incumbent or former president, or a president - elect have been made since the early 1800s . Four sitting presidents have been killed, all of them by gunshot: Abraham Lincoln (1865), James A. Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901) and John F. Kennedy (1963). Additionally, two presidents have been injured in attempted assassinations, also by gunshot: Theodore Roosevelt (1912; former president at the time) and Ronald Reagan (1981). </P> <P> Although the historian James W. Clarke has suggested that most American assassinations were politically motivated actions, carried out by rational men, not all such attacks have been undertaken for political reasons . Some attackers had questionable mental stability, and a few were judged legally insane . Since the Vice President of the United States has for more than a century been elected from the same political party as the President, the assassination of the President is unlikely to result in major policy changes . This may explain why political groups typically do not make such attacks . </P>

Who was the first president to be shot in office