Had Guns Not Been Misfired

OF THE FOUR AMERICAN presidents who have been shot and killed, all of them could easily have been protected sufficiently to avoid being killed, but for some reason, proper protection was given to the President only after four had been slain. Putting the top of his convertible up might have saved Kennedy, or if the car had moved a little faster. Abraham Lincoln had only one guard the night he was shot, a man who didn't take his job seriously, because he didn't think he needed to. Neither did anyone else. Lincoln used to walk around Washington D .C. with only one uniform accompanying him, even though he got dozens of death threats every day. When Lincoln awakened each morning and went downstairs, there were people straight off the street sitting around the White House, every day, because it was considered perfectly acceptable; it was, after all, the "people's house". People wanted to catch a glimpse of the President, maybe even shake his hand. When baskets of fruit arrived at the White House addressed to Abraham Lincoln, the fruit frequently contained poison. Thankfully, thery were smart enough to anticipate this, but not smart enough to anticipate John Wilkes Booth. During the weeks and months prior to murdering Lincoln, John Wilkes Botth told numerous people that he intended to do it. While in St Louis with a theatre company, Booth walked around bragging about his intention to kill Lincoln, and ende dup being arrested and put in jail for making the threat. His employer got him out, and strictly admonished the mouthy actor to stop the big talk. No American President will ever agina be without, even for a moment, massive protection. Even so, two Presidents since Kennedy have nearly been assassinated, and were spared only due to assassin incompetence. Ronald reagan and Gerald Ford, like Andrew Jackson, would have been killed had guns not been misfired.