<P> Assassination attempts and plots on Presidents of the United States have been numerous: more than 30 attempts to kill sitting and former presidents and presidents - elect are known . Four sitting presidents have been killed, all of them by gunshot: Abraham Lincoln (the 16th President), James A. Garfield (the 20th President), William McKinley (the 25th President) and John F. Kennedy (the 35th President). Two presidents were injured in attempted assassinations, also by gunshot: Theodore Roosevelt (the 26th President; although not in office at the time) and Ronald Reagan (the 40th President). </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 last us president to be assassinated