Editing Assassins (musical) (section)

=== Sacrificing for the greater good / fighting against political injustice ===
According to Valerie Lynn Schrader, out of the nine assassins in the musical, six of them ([[John Wilkes Booth]], [[Giuseppe Zangara]], [[Leon Czolgosz]], [[Charles J. Guiteau|Charles Guiteau]], [[Squeaky Fromme|Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme]], and [[Samuel Byck]]) are motivated to assassinate their targets due to "political injustice and sacrifice for the greater good," and among the six assassins, Booth and Czolgosz have been portrayed to have such motives as their primary reason for their assassination.<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal|last=Schrader|first=Valerie Lynn|date=2017-10-11|title='Another National Anthem': Public Memory, Burkean Identification, and the Musical Assassins|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-theatre-quarterly/article/abs/another-national-anthem-public-memory-burkean-identification-and-the-musical-assassins/1F3BC3BCA79F04D65ECFD0D67DF4F35D|journal=New Theatre Quarterly|language=en|volume=33|issue=4|pages=320–332|doi=10.1017/S0266464X1700046X|s2cid=194606035|issn=0266-464X}}</ref>

In the musical, John Wilkes Booth believes that his assassination on President [[Abraham Lincoln]] is for the greater good (and is an act of patriotism), which is "supported historically: the Ford’s Theatre Museum notes that Booth was part of a conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln, Vice President [[Andrew Johnson]], and Secretary of State [[William H. Seward]] in order to put the Union in a state of disarray and anarchy."<ref name=":03" /> Raymond Knapp states that Booth's motivation is "conveyed musically, self-servingly by his own singing in a quasi-hymnic, sometimes inspirational style," based on the 1991 original Off-Broadway Version.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal|last=Knapp|first=Raymond|date=2004|title="Assassins, Oklahoma!" and the 'Shifting Fringe of Dark around the Camp-Fire'|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3878305|journal=Cambridge Opera Journal|volume=16|issue=1|pages=77–101|doi=10.1017/S0954586704001788|jstor=3878305|s2cid=190718811|issn=0954-5867}}</ref>

In the scene before "The Gun Song", the anarchist [[Emma Goldman]] inspires Leon Czolgosz to take action in light of his anarchist beliefs and the "societal injustice" that he has noticed.<ref name=":52">{{Cite web|last=Fulton|first=Ben|date=March 5, 2013|title=Dark Horse rides the fine lines of Sondheim's 'Assassins'|url=https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=55931453&itype=CMSID|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-30|website=The Salt Lake Tribune|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930060734/https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=55931453&itype=CMSID |archive-date=September 30, 2021 }}</ref> In "The Gun Song", Czolgosz has a "moody contemplation of how one gun connects backward to the many lifes it consumes in its manufacture," and later he claims that "[a] gun claims many men before it's done. Just one more," referring to his assassination target, President [[William McKinley]].<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":62">{{Cite web|title=Stephen Sondheim – The Gun Song|url=https://genius.com/Stephen-sondheim-the-gun-song-lyrics|website=Genius.com|access-date=2021-09-30}}</ref> The political injustice in Czolgosz's timeline would be the "class inequalities in America."<ref name=":42">{{Cite web|last=Wang|first=Deena|date=September 6, 2011|title=THEATER REVIEW How was the show, Mrs. Lincoln?|url=https://thetech.com/2011/09/06/assassins-v131-n34|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-30|website=The Tech|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190918031537/https://thetech.com/2011/09/06/assassins-v131-n34 |archive-date=September 18, 2019 }}</ref>