What Happens Immediately After An Assassination Attempt On A US President

When an attempted assassination of the president of the United States happens, it can bring about varied results. Not much changes if a president is unaffected and uninjured like Andrew Jackson was in 1835 (would-be assassin Richard Lawrence's gun misfired) or Gerald Ford in 1975 (twice, once when Lynette Fromme, an associate of Charles Manson, tried to shoot him but her gun misfired, and once when Sara Jane Moore fired a gun at him and missed). In all these instances, the offenders were taken into custody and the president carried on their duties. 

If a president is injured, they will receive medical attention, but if they are incapacitated, the 25th Amendment immediately goes into effect. The 25th Amendment was approved by Congress in 1965 and ratified by the states in 1967. 

Enacted in response to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the 25th Amendment clarified how presidential succession was to be handled. While each presidential assassination in US history had resulted in the vice president becoming president, there was no Constitutional foundation for this. The line of presidential succession was established in 1947, but there was a recognized need to make it clear if the vice president simply took over the presidency or became the president. The 25th Amendment “established incontrovertibly” that the latter took place. 

According to the 25th Amendment:

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President…

Whenever the President transmits… his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

While Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson's swearing of the presidential oath of office aboard Air Force One was a somber occasion, the transition of power to Johnson did demonstrate stability to the nation and the world. Once the Amendment was in place, the formality of that event should it happen in the future was solidified.

In 1985, President Ronald Reagan had surgery, during which time George H.W. Bush became president. However, it's not entirely clear if the 25th Amendment was used, since Reagan did not invoke it. President George W. Bush invoked the Amendment in 2002 and 2007 while he had colonoscopies, and President Joseph Biden did the same thing in 2021, making Dick Cheney and Kamala Harris acting presidents, respectively. 

Whether an assassination attempt on the president of the United States succeeds or not, law enforcement is involved in finding the individual or individuals behind it. As was the case in the assassinations of President James Garfield and President William McKinley in 1881 and 1901, respectively, the men who shot them were immediately apprehended. 

Garfield's assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, was arrested, immediately stating “I did it. I will go to jail for it.” Guiteau didn't go to jail for long, however. He was found guilty, his appeals failed, and he was executed in June 1882. McKinley's killer, Leon Czolgosz, was also grabbed immediately after he shot the president, put on trial, and executed in 1901.

Manhunts were carried out to find both Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy's assassins. John Wilkes Booth was killed after a long pursuit by authorities, but eight other conspirators were put on trial. Four of the individuals were found guilty and hanged, while the remaining four were sentenced to prison. Lee Harvey Oswald was captured and confined but was shot and killed in Dallas by nightclub owner Jack Ruby on November 24, 1963.

Not every would-be assassin is known to authorities or the public. When Abraham Lincoln was shot at by a sniper in 1864, the bullet purportedly went through his hat, so he was not harmed. The shooter was never identified, however.

Other potential assassins were caught right after they attempted to kill the president. The unsuccessful assassination attempt by Sara Jane Moore in 1975 resulted in her arrest and subsequent parole; the failed effort by John Hinckley Jr. in 1981 had the same result. Hinckley, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity for shooting and wounding Reagan, spent more than 41 years in jail before his release in 2022.

Former US President Theodore Roosevelt was shot while campaigning to return to office on the Bull Moose Party ticket in 1912. The accused assailant, John Schrank, shot at Roosevelt as the ex-president walked toward his car before a scheduled speech in. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Despite being hit in the chest, Roosevelt gave his planned speech: his eyeglasses case and the folded speech itself - both of which were in his breast pocket - had blocked the bullet from hitting any vital organs. 

Schrank was immediately apprehended by the crowd that had gathered to see Roosevelt. He was arrested and pled guilty, but didn't stand trial because he was deemed mentally ill. Two months after he was shot by Schrank, Roosevelt reportedly wrote to a friend that the shooter “was not really a madman at all… [but was] a man of the same disordered brain which most criminals, and a great many noncriminals, have.”

Another man who tried to kill a sitting president was Oscar Collazo. A native of Puerto Rico, Collazo and Griselio Torresola tried to shoot President Harry S. Truman in 1950. Truman was staying at Blair House while the White House was being renovated. When Collazo and Torresola approached, the latter shot and killed a policeman named Leslie Coffelt. Coffelt returned fire, killing Torresola and injuring Collazo. Collazo recovered from his wounds and stood trial for attempting to kill the president. Despite being sentenced to death, Collazo received a commutation from Truman to a life sentence. Jimmy Carter later commuted his sentence to time served.

After the attempt on Truman's life, Congress expanded the duties of the Secret Service to protect the president, his family, the vice president, and the president-elect. The Secret Service - created by Abraham Lincoln shortly before his assassination - had only been protecting the president since 1901, after the assassination of William McKinley. The other protective details were carried out by the Treasury Department. A congressional act of 1951 officially placed all of these protective duties under the purview of the Secret Service. 

If an assassin kills a sitting US president, several symbolic acts of mourning begin. This is true when a president dies of natural causes, too. Proclamation 3044, issued by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, established the guidelines in 1954:

[I] do hereby prescribe and proclaim the following rules with respect to the display of the flag of the United States of America at half-staff upon the death of the officials hereinafter designated:

1. The flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff on all buildings, grounds, and naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions for the period indicated upon the death of any of the following-designated officials or former officials of the United States:
(a) The President or a former President: for thirty days from the day of death. The flag shall also be flown at half-staff for such period at all United States embassies, legations, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

While the death of the president necessitates this custom for 30 days, the death of the vice president requires only 10 days. In the event of the death of high-profile federal officials like a Supreme Court Justice, flags are flown at half-staff from the day of death until their interment. Provision 3044 was amended to include additional individuals and circumstances in 1969.

The first people told about the death of a sitting president are presumably the leader's family members. For government officials, the vice president is notified as soon as possible and the rest of the Cabinet and Congress are informed. The general public is told that a president has died in an official statement contained in a newspaper, read on television, or posted online. When President Abraham Lincoln died, the public heard the news as it slowly made its way west from Washington, DC via telegraph and word of mouth. However, people worldwide watched as news anchors like Walter Cronkite announced President John F. Kennedy's death in 1963.

The funeral arrangements for a fallen president are also announced to the public once they are official. Not every former president or their family has opted for a state funeral. Many former presidents have made their wishes for private and unofficial ceremonies clear, but in the event of an untimely assassination, funeral arrangements are made by the fallen official's family.

The death of James Garfield weeks after being shot in 1881 was followed by a state funeral; William McKinley also had a state funeral in 1901. John F. Kennedy similarly had a state funeral, one that his wife, Jacqueline, specifically said was to follow the example set by services held for Abraham Lincoln in 1865.