Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan — 1981 shooting of US President Ronald Reagan and murder of then White House Press Secretary James Brady
The 1981 shooting of President Reagan prompted national debate on gun control and tested constitutional provisions for presidential succession.
Key Facts
- Date of shooting
- March 30, 1981
- Shooter
- John Hinckley Jr.
- Location
- Outside Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington, D.C.
- Reagan released from hospital
- April 11, 1981
- Hinckley verdict
- Not guilty by reason of insanity, June 21, 1982
- James Brady died
- 2014, from injuries sustained in shooting
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
John Hinckley Jr., motivated by an erotomanic obsession with actress Jodie Foster after watching the 1976 film Taxi Driver, planned the attack believing it would impress her. He targeted President Reagan as Reagan departed a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton hotel on March 30, 1981.
Hinckley fired a revolver at Reagan outside the Washington Hilton. A bullet ricocheted off the presidential limousine and struck Reagan in the left underarm, breaking a rib and puncturing a lung. Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty were also wounded. Reagan underwent emergency surgery at George Washington University Hospital.
Reagan recovered and was released on April 11, 1981, but James Brady suffered permanent brain damage and died in 2014 from his injuries. Hinckley was acquitted by reason of insanity in 1982 and held in psychiatric care until 2016. The shooting accelerated gun control advocacy, and Brady's disability later inspired the 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.
Political Outcome
Reagan survived after emergency surgery; Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982; James Brady died in 2014 from his wounds; no formal invocation of the Twenty-fifth Amendment occurred.