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The shooting of Donald Trump at an election rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania on Saturday (July 13) marks the first major attempt to assassinate a US President or presidential candidate in 43 years.
On March 30, 1981, while returning to his motorcade after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel, then-President Ronald Reagan was shot. Interestingly, the act was not politically motivated: the shooter, 25-year-old John Hinckley Jr, was driven by the singular desire to impress Hollywood actress Jodie Foster.
Ronald Reagan was elected the 40th President of the United States from the Republican Party and took office on January 20, 1981. On March 30, he exited the Hilton after an event. Given the short distance between the hotel and his limousine, neither the President nor his agents wore bulletproof vests.
As Reagan and his entourage passed by a crowd that had gathered, John Hinckley Jr fired six rounds from his Röhm RG-14 .22 LR blue steel revolver. The gun was loaded with ‘Devastator’ bullets, designed to explode on contact.
The first five shots hit those around Reagan — the White House press secretary James Brady in the head, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy in the stomach, and DC policeman Thomas Delahanty in the neck and shoulder. The sixth bullet found its target and injured 70-year-old Reagan, grazing a rib and lodging itself in his lung.
Only the bullet that hit Brady exploded, leaving him with a lifelong brain injury that resulted in slurred speech and paralysis on one side.
The President was rushed to George Washington University Hospital. Despite having lost at least 40% of his blood, Reagan reportedly attempted to keep the mood light. He famously quipped to his doctors, “I sure hope all of you out there are all Republicans”, to which they responded, “Today, Mister President, we are all Republican.”
The next year he watched the Academy Award-winning film Taxi Driver, which deeply impacted him. The film follows a mentally disturbed protagonist named Travis Bickle, who tries to rescue a sexually trafficked child. In the process, he plots to assassinate a presidential candidate. Identifying himself with Bickle, Hinckley developed an unhealthy obsession with then-child actress, Jodie Foster.
After attempts at reaching out to Foster, to the point of stalking her, Hinckley decided on something dramatic to win her affection. He believed she would consider him an equal if he did something historic.
He first identified President Jimmy Carter as his target, following him country-wide across his campaign stops in October 1980, but could not follow through. He then turned his attention to Carter’s rival, Ronald Reagan.
News reports of the President’s cheerful demeanour and humour drummed up sympathy for him. Reagan left the hospital 12 days after the shooting and on April 28, he presented his plan for economic recovery from the recession to a Joint Session of Congress. He was cheered on.
While he was significantly weakened and assumed the full extent of his duties around a month later, the optics of his return to work helped his perception.
Journalist and political commentator John P. Avlon noted that while Reagan had won in 44 states, the margin of popular votes secured was narrow – 50.7%. At the time of his inauguration, Reagan’s approval ratings showed 74% Republican support, 53% from independents and 38% from Democrats. After the shooting, his approval ratings improved across the board – 92% from Republicans, 70% from Independents and even 51% from Democrats.
This gave him the impetus to suppress a strike by Air Traffic Control (ATC) workers and to push ahead with his proposed tax cuts that year.
The assassination attempt also impacted how presidential protection would be undertaken. Training protocol for the Secret Service has since become more rigorous and secure communications have been incorporated.
Hinckley was tried for the attempt to assassinate the President but his case presented a unique complication. While he was indicted, a jury ruled him “not guilty by reason of insanity”. His lawyers had employed the substantial capacity test, an insanity defence part of the Model Penal Code. It required the prosecution to establish that the defendant had the mental capacity to comprehend the scope of his actions.
The shooter’s acquittal and the accompanying outcry prompted Congress and many states to revise the laws supporting the insanity defence, with three states even abolishing the insanity defence.
Hinckley remained in St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington DC until 2006 and was released to live with his mother under court supervision and mandatory psychiatric treatment in 2016. He secured an unconditional release in 2021 and has since expressed remorse for his actions. Today he is an artist of sorts, selling paintings of his cat on eBay and releasing music on streaming platforms.
