How important do you have to be to be assasinated rahter than murdered?

Question

Just wondering how important do you have to be to be assasinated rather than it being classsed as murder and who decides whether you are assasinated or murdered?

Answer 1

To assasinate is to: kill suddenly or secretively, esp. a politically prominent person; murder premeditatedly and treacherously.

To murder is to: the killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law.

Answer 2

Not terribly important, Carlos the Jackal tried to assassinate the President of Marks and Spencer just because he was a Jew, there's long been a death warrant out for Salman Rushdie even though all he did was write a book, The British Ambassador to the Netherlands was assassinated in '79 by the IRA really just for being British and in a position of power. Cleo A. Noel the American ambassador to Sudan was assassinated by Black September simply for being American.

I'd say that typically you have to be in a government or opposition to government position, and the selection of being assassinated is really how people perceive you as being dangerous to their own political or other aims, not how important you actually are.

Answer 3

I would say that an assassination is for political reasons. A murder is for anything else. The reason why assassination is associated with important people is that when they are killed it is usually for political reasons. They have better security so they are not usually targeted for other reasons.

Answer 4

I guess you have to be important enough to the person/people who hire or arrange for someone to do the deed. My conscience tells me that assassination is murder, but murder is not assassination. Assassination is committed to control a situation bigger than the victim. So, perhaps they are not as important as their ideologies.

Answer 5

Well, I don't see any difference as they both amount to the same thing! If you are in a position of power is all that matters, however they are usually talking about leaders of countries! The other issue is why!

Answer 6

Important enough that your death would have political ramifications - especially /if/ the killer targetted you for political reasons.

For instance, if Bill Clinton had been killed by a paramour's enraged husband, that would arguably have been a murder, not an assassination...

Answer 7

It is not a question of importance but whether or not you have followers and whether or not you were killed because of a belief or view you were vocal about.

Answer 8

important enough to effect the lives of many other around you till the point some one dont agree with wit u cause they think it effecting them or things around them too much and go kill you

Answer 9

I don't know, I've never been important enough to get past being ignored.

Answer 10

government pawns are good for assagnations, but gang bangers usually murder. u have to be pretty special to have someone pay to have you taken out.