The old guy at the end is hilarious. They really set about beating the shit out of the guy afterwards

I too love the old guy with the umbrella, but something about this feels very strange. What kind of assassin a) leaves the safety on, and b) steps onstage in full view of the cameras? It makes no sense and makes that small part of me open to conspiracy theories think that it was a false flag intended to show how badass this politician is. I'm fully open to being proven wrong on this, however, and suspect I will be.

He didn't leave the safety on. It misfired. You can hear the click. And why did the guy who tried to kill ronald reagan step right up to him when cameras were there? Because that's when its easiest to kill someone. These people aren't trying to get away.

The guy who killed Reagan wanted Jodie Foster to see him, so I don't know if we can take him as typical for assassins. I just wanna know more about the guy and why someone would go about it this way. All I've seen was the Daily Mail article with the sound off at work. One AP article explaining what happened will be enough to kill my skepticism.

The guy who wanted to kill Reagan, obviously.

Who knows. Bulgaria is a crazy place, that much I know from my Bulgarian friends

What an amateur. Where's his backup weapon?

He had a few knives on him, I think the reports said.

"it was later confirmed to be a gas pistol - a non-lethal weapon used largely for self-defence which does not fire bullets but which can cause serious injuries if fired from close range." - they tend to fire CS gas or Mace. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_pistol

Maybe he wanted "Suicide By Cop"?

@Invictus - will the BBC or Reuters do?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21103987
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/01/19/uk-bulgaria-assault-idUKBRE90I0AU20130119

What my Bulgarian friend has to say on the matter...quite a different reaction than what i had.

" It's really far from being an assassination attempt. No terrorist would ever go just next to the victim to try to kill them so that everyone, including the cameras could see. The reactions of both the politician and and "terrorist" were so fake, you can notice how they were staring at each other as if they were waiting for the others to come. It's just an attempt to attract media attention and consolidate the electorate of this otherwise disintegrated party, proving the party's corruption and lack of dignity. (typical of other Bulgarian parties as well)"

They would do, but I meant something more along the lines of an expose piece on who the guy is and what actually happened. That probably won't come out till the trial, assuming Bulgaria has taken the whole EU thing to heart and does things properly. I honestly don't know enouhg to say. I won't go so far down the rabbit-hole as goldfinger0303's friend, but it all still seems very weird to me.

Noob, he didn't even shoot. No gain, significant pain. He should watch and learn, that guy is a minor celebrity now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nHOjeD2DRI

I read a thing in The Economist about 2 years ago suggesting that Bulgaria had something like 180 murders by hit men and only 2 arrests over the same period of time. Murder, Inc. indeed.

After shooting Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth leaped onto a stage in a crowded theater, brandished a gun, and shouted, "Sic semper tyranus." I think there's a long history of assassins who are bad at not being seen.

Jack ruby shot LHO on camera

Leon Czolgosz shot President McKinley in the middle of the Pan American Exposition. Squeaky Fromme tried to shoot Ford in the middle of a crowded street and Hinckley shot Reagan in a similar fashion. No subtlety in any of them.

And Sirhan Sirhan shot RFK in a hotel kitchen in front of dozens of people.

Of course, the identity of the person that night who fired the fatal shot to the back of RFK's head (Sirhan was in front of Kennedy) remains a mystery.

GET DARWYN IN HERE

HE'LL TELL THE SHEEPLE THE TRUTH