While the Secret Service reels over the security lapses that contributed to the assassination attempt at a Trump rally on July 13, most Americans have forgotten the previous attempt to assassinate a president.
And no, it wasn’t Ronald Reagan. It was Bill Clinton.
Looking back on that case, which I participated in as the law clerk for the federal judge overseeing the trial of the attempted assassin, it is astounding how much we’ve come to tolerate gun violence and how little Congress is willing to do about it.
The attempted assassination of President Bill Clinton occurred on Oct. 29, 1994. A 26-year-old man named Francisco Martin Duran, dressed in a trench coat, shot a semi-automatic rifle through the fence surrounding the White House lawn on Pennsylvania Ave. He was aiming at a group of men wearing business suits who were touring the grounds. One of them was fashion designer Dennis Basso, who with his salt-and-pepper hair resembled Clinton.
Shortly after Duran fired over 27 rounds toward the White House, three onlookers tackled him until the Secret Service arrived. The president was inside watching football.
Duran was indicted and convicted for attempted murder of the president, along with other charges, and sentenced to 40 years in prison. The case was legally historic because Duran’s lawyers tried (unsuccessfully) to prove that he was insane under a........