Guns Used in Famous Assassinations

This is a list of firearms used in famous assassinations. Attempted assassinations are included as well, such as the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan as an example.

Year	Location	Victim	Attacker	Weapon	Description
1570	Scotland	James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, Regend of Scotland	James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh	Matchlock carbine	First recorded use of a firearm in an assassination.
1584	Netherlands	William the Silent, Prince of Orange	Balthasar Gerard	Wheellock pistol	Second ever recorded assassination using a firearm, and the first to ever use a handgun.
1812	United Kingdom	Prime Minister Spencer Perceval	John Bellingham	Screw-barrel .50 caliber flintlock pistol	Only British Prime Minister to be assassinated. Bellingham bought a pair of half-inch bore pistols from gunsmith W. Beckwith of Snow Hill, for four Guineas.
1865	United States	President Abraham Lincoln	John Wilkes Booth	.44 caliber muzzleloading derringer by Henry Deringer
1868	Canada	Thomas D'Arcy McGee	MP Patrick J. Whelan	.32 rimfire Smith & Wesson Army revolver
1880	Canada	George Brown, Premier of Canada West	George Bennett	"Colt revolver"
1881	United States	President James A. Garfield	Charles Guiteau	.44 caliber British Bulldog Revolver
1900	Italy	King Umberto I of Italy	Gaetano Bresci	.32 S&W Iver-Johnson revolver
1901	United States	President William McKinley	Leon Czolgosz	.32 S&W Iver-Johnson revolver	Czolgosz bought the revolver three days before the assassination for $4.50 in a hardware store in Buffalo, where the attack would later occur. Newspaper clippings he had collected prior noted that this specific revolver model was previously used by Gaetano Bresci to assassinate King Umberto I of Italy.
1904	Finland	General Nikolay Bobrikov	Eugen Schauman	FN Browning M1900	Example
1908	Portugal	King Carlos I of Portugal	Manuel Buíça	Winchester Model 1907 semi-auto carbine chambered in .351 WSL	Serial number was 2137. Gun imported from Germany by Heitor Ferreira
1909	Korea	Resident-General Itō Hirobumi	An Jung-geun	FN Browning M1900
1914	Austria-Hungary	Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria	Gavrilo Princip	FN Model 1910 chambered in .380 ACP	A letter dated April 2012 from Thomas Ilming, curator Waffen und Technik, Vienna Military Museum, who holds the actual Belgium made Browning (FN) M1910 semi-auto pistol caliber .380 acp (9mm Kurz) s/n 19074 used by Princip. This semi-automatic pistol design allows the interchangeable barrels/receiver either 9mm Kurz or 7.65mm which probably creates some confusion as to caliber, some references state .32 ACP (7.65 mm). Letter from the Museum in Vienna states emphatically that the caliber of the assassination weapon was 9mm Kurz.
1932	France	President Paul Doumer	Paul Gorguloff	FN Model 1910
1933	United States	Anton Cermak, mayor of Chicago during possible attempted assassination of Franklin D. Roosevelt	Giuseppe Zangara	.32 S&W revolver by the United States Revolver Company	Upon arriving in Miami, Zangara bought the revolver for $8 from a pawn shop, as well as 10 cartridges.
1933	Peru	President Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro	Abelardo de Mendoza	Browning semi-auto pistol
1934	France	King Alexander I of Yugoslavia	Vlado Chernozemski	Mauser C96 pistol
1935	United States	Senator Huey Long	Carl Weiss	FN Model 1910 semi-auto pistol chambered in .32 ACP
1938	France	Ernst vom Rath	Herschel Grynszpan	6.35mm five-shot "hammerless" revolver	Bought for 210 francs and a box of 25 cartridges for 35 francs.
1942	France	Admiral François Darlan	Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle	Ruby Pistol chambered in .32 ACP (7.65mm)
1944	Egypt	Resident Minister Lord Moyne	Eliyahu Hakim	Nagant revolver in (7.62x38mmR)
1948	India	Mahatma Gandhi	Nathuram Godse	Beretta M1934 pistol chambered in .380 ACP
1963	United States	President John F. Kennedy	Lee Harvey Oswald	Carcano Model 91/38 chambered in 6.5 Carcano
1965	United States	Malcolm X	Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler, Thomas 15X Johnson	Sawed-off shotgun, M1911A1 and another semi-automatic handgun
1968	United States	Martin Luther King, Jr.	James Earl Ray	Remington 760 Gamemaster chambered in .30-06 Springfield	Ray first purchased an identical rifle model but chambered in .243 Winchester. He returned it, deeming it too weak for his purposes.
1968	United States	Robert F. Kennedy	Sirhan Sirhan	Iver-Johnson Model 55 Cadet	Serial number was H-53725, Trial-People's exhibit #6, misidentified in trial testimony as serial number H-18602.
1969	Somalia	President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke	Bodyguard	"Automatic rifle"
1975	Saudi Arabia	King Faisal of Saudi Arabia	Faisal bin Musaid	Revolver
1978	United States	George Moscone and Harvey Milk	Dan White	Smith & Wesson Model 36 "Chief's Special" snub-nose revolver in .38 Special	Dan White, a former police officer, used the revolver he formerly carried on the job.
1979	South Korea	President Park Chung-hee	Kim Jae-gyu	Walther PPK chambered in .32 ACP
1980	United States	John Lennon	Mark Chapman	Charter Arms snubnose revolver chambered in .38 Special	Bought at J&S Sales in Honolulu, Hawaii for $169.
1981	United States	President Ronald Reagan (unsuccessful)	John Hinckley Jr.	Rohm RG-14 .22 caliber revolver	Hinckley was apparently obsessed with and wanted to impress actress Jodie Foster. The attempted assassination was unsuccessful, but President Reagan was wounded, along with police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy. He also critically wounded Press Secretary James Brady, who was left permanently disabled.
1981	Egypt	Anwar El Sadat	Khalid Islambouli and other co-conspirators	Egyptian-issue AK-47 rifles	One gun used in the assassination had "In the name of Allah the avenger" inscribed on its barrel.
1984	United States	Alan Berg	Members of "The Order", a white nationalist group	MAC-10 pistol in .45 ACP	The gun used was a semi-auto originally, but was converted illegally to fully-automatic.
1984	India	Indira Gandhi	Bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh	A .38 Special service revolver, and SAF Carbine, an Indian-produced Sterling submachine gun in 9x18mm Parabellum	Beant fired five rounds from his service revolver, and Satwant followed with 25 rounds from his carbine.
1986	Sweden	Olof Palme	Unknown	.357 Magnum revolver	Shooter never identified.
1995	Israel	Yitzhak Rabin	Yigal Amir	Beretta Cheetah series (Model 84F, chambered in .380 ACP) - a semi-auto pistol
2002	Netherlands	Pim Fortuyn	Volkert van der Graaf	Star Firestar series pistol - Model 43 chambered in 9mm
2003	Serbia	Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić	Zvezdan Jovanović	Heckler & Koch G3 rifle, chambered in 7.62x51mm NATO	Fired from a window 180 meters away.
2004	Netherlands	Theo van Gogh	Mohammed Bouyeri	HS2000 semi-auto pistol
2009	United Arab Emirates	Sulim Yamadayev	Unknown	Makarov pistol chambered in 9x18mm Makarov	The gold-plated pistol was left at the scene.
2011	Pakistan	Osama bin Laden	U.S. Navy SEALs	Heckler & Koch HK416 rifle
2015	Northern Ireland	Gerard "Jock" Davison	Unknown	Makarov pistol	The PSNI reported that the use of a Makarov pistol was "unusual".
2016	Turkey	Andrei Karlov	Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş	Canik 55 TP9	Altıntaş was an off duty police officer and used his service weapon in the attack.
2016	Orlando, Florida, United States	Christina Grimmie	Kevin Loibl	Glock 19 Gen 4 9mm Pistol
2022	Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan	Shinzo Abe	Tetsuya Yamagami	Improvised Firearm