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A list purportedly naming dozens of Democrats throughout history who have shot and killed presidents, politicians, and civilians has been circulating online since at least 2012 along with the argument that it should be illegal for Democrats to own guns. Musician Ted Nugent posted one of the most popular iterations in September 2015: This list has evolved since it first started circulating in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. The earliest iteration of this list we could uncover only contained five items, but as it spread people added new names and dates and removed old ones that were either irrelevant or disproven. The earliest versions of this list reveal two things: It has always been rife with errors (Lincoln's alleged death-by-Democrat was originally listed in 1863, not 1865), and has always circulated with an anti-Democrat, pro-NRA message. Here's how an Anonymous Coward introduced this list on a God Like Production forum in January 2013: Another early version of this list ended — as Nugent's did — with a solution to the gun problem in the United States: Although the message of this meme hasn't changed, this list has grown from five items in 2012, to 19 as of June 2017. Here is how it appeared on the ThoughtCrime Resistance Facebook page: Setting aside for a moment the accuracy (or lack thereof) of the items on the list, we find a logical flaw in using this meme to reach the conclusion that Democrats shouldn't own guns — or that National Rifle Association members, tea party members, or Republicans are less likely to be involved in assassination attempts or mass shootings. This list is not comprehensive. It does not include all of the shootings that have occurred in the United States, nor the political affiliations of every shooter. It ignores shootings committed by Republicans, as well as those with no political party affiliation, and makes no attempt to show how political affiliation leads to violence. In other words, one could make a similar list naming nothing but Republican or politically unaffiliated shooters in order to make the opposing (and still flawed) argument that those groups should not own guns. In addition to the logical problems of this meme, much of the information is also inaccurate. We searched contemporary reports for each of the listed incidents in an attempt to uncover any mentions of political affiliations, motivations, or voting records. Many of these items can be traced back to poor reporting, articles that were later corrected, or fake news items. And although we encountered this meme (or a similar list) on a variety of web sites, none of these publications provided any documentation to back up these claims. Verifying this information through online state voting registrations proved problematic as deceased individuals are removed from these databases. We reached out to state historical societies for additional documentation, but several of the states we contacted told us that voter registration records weren't archived. Even if they were, however, one's official party registration can often contradict one's political beliefs. Given the difficulty of finding the political affiliation of many of the individuals on this list, we are highly skeptical that this list is based on credible information. Here's a look at what we found: In 1865, a Democrat shot and killed Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. MOSTLY FALSE Shooter: John Wilkes Booth John Wilkes Booth was a member of the Know-Nothing Party. However, some of his motivations for assassinating Lincoln (Booth was opposed to freeing the slaves) aligned with the Democratic Party at the time: Although Booth's motivations may have aligned with the Democratic party of 1865, they bear little resemblance to the party's modern positions, which have changed dramatically over the past 152 years. In 1881, a left wing radical Democrat shot James Garfield, President of the United States - who later died from the wound. FALSE Shooter: Charles J. Guiteau Guiteau gave what The Atlantic calls an incoherent speech to a small group of black voters in New York City in support of presidential candidate James Garfield. Guiteau then claimed that the speech — which he had originally written in support of Ulysses S. Grant — was the reason for Garfield's election victory. The new administration, from Guiteau's perspective, owed him an ambassadorship. When he was denied his request, Guiteau set out for revenge: Guiteau was not a left wing radical Democrat — he was a supporter of the Republican Party. In 1963, a radical left wing socialist shot and killed John F. Kennedy, President of the United States. MOSTLY TRUE Shooter: Lee Harvey Oswald Oswald was a Marxist and supported Fidel Castro and Cuba. However, Oswald's inclusion on this list is odd in that there is no claim that he is a Democrat. In 1975, a left wing radical Democrat fired shots at Gerald Ford, President of the United States. UNPROVEN Shooters: Lynette Fromme and Sara Jane Moore Two women in one month attempted to shoot Gerald Ford in 1975: Lynette Squeaky Fromme, a member of the Manson family, and Sara Jane Moore, a member of radical leftist circles in California and an FBI informant. Both women appear to have had mental health issues. For her part, Fromme appears to have been trying to impress Charles Manson. Moore may have been caught between her loyalty to the FBI and to the leftist groups she was a part of, according to Atlas Obscura: Moore fired a shot, which a bystander deflected by grabbing her arm. Fromme was apprehended before she fired a shot. Although both women could rightly be described as radicals, we found no evidence to show that they were Democrats. It appears that Moore and Fromme earned their place on this list thanks to a March 2010 article published by the web site Red State which compiled a list in an attempt to show that LEFTIST ARE THE HATERS AND ASSASSINS. In 1983, a registered Democrat shot and wounded Ronald Reagan, President of the United States. UNPROVEN Shooter: John Hinckley Jr. Another claim that seems to be supported only by speculation. John Hinckley Jr.'s assassination attempt in 1981 (not 1983 as suggested by this meme) was motivated not by politics, but by his desire to woo actress Jodie Foster. In fact, officials believe that before he shot Reagan, Hinckley stalked Jimmy Carter towards the end of his presidency. Regardless, we contacted the History Colorado (Hinckley's last place of residence was in the state), who told us: We also contacted the Colorado State Archives, but they didn't have a record of Hinckley's purported political affiliation either. In 1984, James Hubert, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 22 people in a McDonalds restaurant. UNPROVEN Shooter: James Huberty (not James Hubert) Again, we found no record that Huberty was a Democrat, either in terms of his official voter registration or his political leanings. The book Dying on the Job: Murder and Mayhem in the American Workplace describes Huberty as a survivalist who was paranoid about government overreach: Huberty attempted to contact a mental health facility the day before he killed 22 people in a McDonald's. In 1986, Patrick Sherrill, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 15 people in an Oklahoma post office. UNPROVEN Reports about the 1986 shooting which left 15 people dead and led to the popularity of the phrase going postal, paint Sherrill as a loner whose eccentric behavior earned him the nickname Crazy Pat. He was a marine and a member of the National Guard. The meme itself offers no proof of Sherrill's supposed political affiliation. His shooting spree, which came shortly after he was reprimanded by superiors, had little to do with politics, according to TIME: Still, we contacted the Oklahoma Historical Society to see if they had any record of Sherrill's voter registration. Director of Special Projects and Development Larry O'Dell for told us, We wouldn't have voter records for that time period. In 1990, James Pough, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 10 people at a GMAC office. UNPROVEN James Pough went into the office of the General Motors Acceptance Corporation, the car company's financing arm, in Jacksonville, Florida, fatally shot 9 people and killed himself. We found no record of James Pough being registered with any political party. Although a motivation for Pough's shooting spree is still unclear, reports at the time mentioned that his car had been repossessed. In 1991, George Hennard, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 23 people in a Luby's [C]afeteria in Killeen, TX. UNPROVEN Again, we found no evidence that Hennard was a registered Democrat. A motivation for Hennard's violent and deadly act are still unclear (he took his own life before he was arrested), but reports at the time indicate that his shooting spree was motivated by his hatred of women: In 1995, James Daniel Simpson, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 5 coworkers in a Texas laboratory. UNPROVEN Simpson, who killed five people at an oil refinery where he used to work, does not appear to have been motivated by politics. We also found no evidence that he was a Democrat. For this, and all other Texas shootings on the list, we contacted the Texas Historical Commission, who directed us to the Texas Secretary of State's office, from whom we have not yet received a response. Again, we are skeptical that whoever put this shooting on the list found evidence that Simpson was a Democrat. In 1999, Larry Asbrook, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 8 people at a church service. UNPROVEN We found no evidence that Asbrook was a Democrat. Although his motivation for opening fire at a church service is unclear, Asbrook was associated with hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Phineas Priests. During the shooting spree, Asbrook also called religion bullshit: In 2001, a left wing radical Democrat fired shots at the White House in a failed attempt to kill George W. Bush, President of the US. FALSE Shooter: Robert Pickett Robert Pickett, who struggled with mental health issues, was fired from his job at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 1989. In 1994, he sued the government to get his job back, but the case was thrown out. According to CBS News: Pickett fired multiple shots at the White House in 2001. However, he was never a registered Democrat, and does not appear to have ever voted: In Indiana, where Pickett registered to vote, the voter registration form does not offer the option to register as the member of a political party. Instead, for the purpose of political primaries, voters affiliate with a party based on their vote in the last election. Since Pickett never voted, he was never officially a member of any political party. In 2003, Douglas Williams, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 7 people at a Lockheed Martin plant. UNPROVEN We found no evidence that Williams was a Democrat. Although many claimed that the shooting was racially motivated - according to one co-worker Williams once threatened to kill me a bunch of n*ggers - others simply said that he was mad at the world: In 2007, a registered Democrat named Seung - Hui Cho, shot and killed 32 people in Virginia Tech. FALSE Seung-Hui Cho was not a registered Democrat. Cho was born in South Korea and was a legal resident alien of the United States, which makes it exceedingly unlikely that he was registered to vote in Virginia. Furthermore, Virginia does not have partisan voter registration, so even if Cho had been registered, he would not have been registered as a Democrat. In 2010, a mentally ill registered Democrat named Jared Lee Loughner, shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed 6 others. FALSE Jared Lee Loughner was a registered as an Independent in 2006 and did not vote in 2010. In 2011, a registered Democrat named James Holmes, went into a movie theater and shot and killed 12 people. FALSE The claim that James Holmes was a registered Democrat stems from a Breitbart article that was based on the voter registration of a different man named James Holmes. The article was eventually updated to state that Holmes may not have been registered to vote at all: ABC News made a similar mistake when they tied Holmes to the tea party. That report also resulted in a correction: We found no record of Holmes's political affiliation, if he indeed had any. In 2012, Andrew Engeldinger, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 7 people in Minneapolis. UNPROVEN We found no evidence that Engeldinger was a registered Democrat, and his shooting does not appear to have been politically motivated. The Minnesota Historical Society Library told us that they do not maintain records for individual voters. We did, however, once again find reports that the shooter was mentally unstable. In 2013, a registered Democrat named Adam Lanza, shot and killed 26 people in a school in Newtown, CT. FALSE The assumption that Adam Lanza was a registered Democrat appears to be based on the fact that Connecticut is typically a Democratic state. However, this is not evidence that Lanza himself was registered as a Democrat. In fact, a report at the time noted that Lanza was not registered to vote: Furthermore, Lanza's inclusion on this list is problematic as police found an NRA shooting guide at his home and an NRA certificate in Lanza's name. As recently as Sept 2013, an angry Democrat shot 12 at a Navy ship yard. UNPROVEN Shooter: Aaron Alexis The claim that Aaron Alexis was a Democrat can be traced back to an article published by The National Report, a fake news web site that has a long history of publishing misinformation: We found no record of Aaron Alexis being registered as a Democrat. However, a co-worker of Alexis' did say that the shooter was more of a liberal-type guy: Politics, however, were not the motivation behind the attack: In conclusion This viral list has been published by a wide range of outlets. However, none of those publications provided any documentation to prove that these individuals were all Democrats. Our investigation found that the majority of people on this list had no official connection to a political party, and that the majority of the incidents were not motivated by politics.
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