The Trump shooting has made a mockery of the Secret Service

The law creating the Secret Service was signed by Abraham Lincoln on April 14th 1865. Unfortunately its original purpose was to take on counterfeiters, not presidential assassins, or else it might have come in handy on that first day—that evening an out-of-work actor shot the president. In fact it turned to protecting presidents only in 1901, after the assassination of William McKinley. Its success has been patchy. Since then, three presidents have been shot: Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Franklin Roosevelt was also almost killed in 1933, and a shooter missed Gerald Ford by inches in 1975. In recent decades, however, the force has grown to 8,000 agents, and no attempt has come so close in 43 years.