On Saturday, October 29, 1994, at approximately 2:55 p.m., Francisco Martin Duran stood on the south sidewalk of Pennsylvania in front of the White House. Suddenly he pulled a Chinese made SKS 7.62 mm semiautomatic rifle from underneath the tan trench coat he was wearing, pointed the barrel of the rifle through the bars of the White House fence, and fired multiple rounds toward the White House. He then pulled the weapon back from the fence and ran down the sidewalk from west to east, toward 15th Street, continuing to fire through the fence as he ran. When Duran paused to empty his magazine and reload, Harry Rakosky, a tourist who worked for a security company in San Antonio, and was in fact in town to attend a conference on violence in the workplace, executed what witnesses described as "a graceful, acrobatic leap" to tackle him. A videotape taken by another tourist shows that Rakosky was behind Duran, which gave him the advantage of not being seen as he pursued the gunman down the sidewalk. When he stopped to reload, Rakosky states: "I thought, 'I'm probably not going to get a better opportunity to tackle him,' so I did." Other tourists then helped subdue Duran until Secret Service agents could climb the White House fence to take charge of the situation. When one of the citizens turned to the officers who had been approaching the scene and said, "Thanks for not shooting me," Duran was heard to say, "I wish you had shot me."

Duran had fired 30 rounds into the White House grounds, eleven of which hit the White House itself. One shot penetrated a window in the Press Briefing Room in the West Wing.

Who was Duran? Upon searching him, the Secret Service recovered a one-page handwritten note identifying Duran and his wife and directing them to his vehicle, a pickup truck parked near the White House. Apparently he expected to be killed. The truck was checked for explosives and searched. Officers recovered a Mossberg 410 shotgun, many boxes of ammunition, several gun-related items and nerve gas antidote. The truck also contained several documents, including an atlas bearing a series of handwritten notes, one of which said: "Kill the Pres!" Also found was a "brooding four-page letter," which has not been released to the press, mentioning a possible attempt on the life of the President. If much of this gear sounds like right wing militarist paraphenalia, there is indeed some evidence linking Duran with organized opposition to gun control. He was an Army veteran who lived about 10 miles to the south of Fort Carson, Colorado, which has a large underground presence of white supremacists. He had apparently attended meetings of a local group, the Save America Militia. Although the weapon he was carrying was not specifically banned by the Crime Bill which President Clinton had given his support to and recently signed, the law prohibits selling such a rifle if it has been altered so that its capacity is more than 10 bullets. The magazine Duran emptied into the White House grounds held 30 bullets. Furthermore, Duran's possession of the weapon was illegal, as a prior felony conviction prohibits him from owning any firearms.

Little is known about Duran. Twenty six years old at the time of the shooting, he is from Albequerque where he was employed variously as a hotel resort worker and upolsterer. He served as a medic in the Army but received a dishonorable discharge in 1993, following a felony conviction for aggravated assault with a vehicle.

On October 1, 1994, Duran's wife Ingrid filed a missing person report with the El Paso County, Colorado, Sheriff's Office, stating he had been missing since September 30. She was concerned because his last, somewhat ominous, statement to her was that he was going to get his equipment for target practice. Then on October 17 she contacted the FBI in Colorado Springs. Duran had called her on October 15 stating that he was planning to do something drastic, in which he might be killed. She believed he was in the central time zone. It was determined that he was probably in the Washington area for as many as twelve days.

After Duran's arrest, several of his friends came forward to say that he had made reference to going to Washington to "take out the President." One said that before he left Colorado, Duran had given him a card saying "It's time to take our country back."

This picture of Duran comes from a web page by an organization that finds penpals for prisoners. He lists his interests as "Reading, Writing, Movies, Hobbycraft, Upholstery work, Rifles, Magic, and Learning New Things." Apparently he is now divorced.

Sources: Schmitt, Eric. "Gunman shoots at White House from Sidewalk." The New York Times 30 Oct. 1994:A1; Johnston, David. "Gunman's Note Mentioned Clinton as Target." The New York Times 2 Nov. 1994:A14; Brooke, James. "For Most GI's Only a Few Hints of Gate Groups." The New York Times 21 Dec. 1995:A14; "the October 29, 1994, Shooting." The White House Security Review May 1995. Online. Internet. 29 Jan. 1997. Available http://www.prop1.org/clues/951018/rev6.htm; "Scene: Jumping the Gunman." People Magazine 14 nov. 1994; Sidney, Hugh. "Never Safe Enough." Time 14 Nov. 1994:66-68.