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On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest
outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by a deranged drifter named
John Hinckley Jr.

The president had just finished addressing a labor meeting at
the Washington Hilton Hotel and was walking with his entourage
to his limousine when Hinckley, standing among a group of
reporters, fired six shots at the president, hitting Reagan and
three of his attendants. White House Press Secretary James Brady
was shot in the head and critically wounded, Secret Service
agent Timothy McCarthy was shot in the side, and District of
Columbia policeman Thomas Delahaney was shot in the neck. After
firing the shots, Hinckley was overpowered and pinned against a
wall, and President Reagan, apparently unaware that he’d been
shot, was shoved into his limousine by a Secret Service agent
and rushed to the hospital.

The president was shot in the left lung, and the .22 caliber
bullet just missed his heart. In an impressive feat for a 70-
year-old man with a collapsed lung, he walked into George
Washington University Hospital under his own power. As he was
treated and prepared for surgery, he was in good spirits and
quipped to his wife, Nancy, ”Honey, I forgot to duck,” and to
his surgeons, “Please tell me you’re Republicans.” Reagan’s
surgery lasted two hours, and he was listed in stable and good
condition afterward.

The next day, the president resumed some of his executive duties
and signed a piece of legislation from his hospital bed. On
April 11, he returned to the White House. Reagan’s popularity
soared after the assassination attempt, and at the end of April
he was given a hero’s welcome by Congress. In August, this same
Congress passed his controversial economic program, with several
Democrats breaking ranks to back Reagan’s plan. By this time,
Reagan claimed to be fully recovered from the assassination
attempt. In private, however, he would continue to feel the
effects of the nearly fatal gunshot wound for years.

Of the victims of the assassination attempt, Secret Service
agent Timothy McCarthy and D.C. policeman Thomas Delahaney
eventually recovered. James Brady, who nearly died after being
shot in the eye, suffered permanent brain damage. He later
became an advocate of gun control, and in 1993 Congress passed
the “Brady Bill,” which established a five-day waiting period
and background checks for prospective gun buyers. President Bill
Clinton signed the bill into law.

After being arrested on March 30, 1981, 25-year-old John
Hinckley was booked on federal charges of attempting to
assassinate the president. He had previously been arrested in
Tennessee on weapons charges. In June 1982, he was found not
guilty by reason of insanity. In the trial, Hinckley’s defense
attorneys argued that their client was ill with narcissistic
personality disorder, citing medical evidence, and had a
pathological obsession with the 1976 film Taxi Driver, in which
the main character attempts to assassinate a fictional senator.
His lawyers claimed that Hinckley saw the movie more than a
dozen times, was obsessed with the lead actress, Jodie Foster,
and had attempted to reenact the events of the film in his own
life. Thus the movie, not Hinckley, they argued, was the actual
planning force behind the events that occurred on March 30, 1981.

The verdict of “not guilty by reason of insanity” aroused
widespread public criticism, and many were shocked that a would-
be presidential assassin could avoid been held accountable for
his crime. However, because of his obvious threat to society, he
was placed in St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, a mental institution. In
the late 1990s, Hinckley’s attorney began arguing that his
mental illness was in remission and thus had a right to return
to a normal life. Beginning in August 1999, he was allowed
supervised day trips off the hospital grounds and later was
allowed to visit his parents once a week unsupervised. The
Secret Service voluntarily monitors him during these outings. If
his mental illness remains in remission, he may one day be
released.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-reagan-shot
 

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