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On March 30, 1981, President Reagan was leaving the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., where he had been talking to 5,000 members of the AFL-CIO when several shots were fired. John Hinckley, Jr., fired his .22 caliber revolver with “devastator” bullets at the President and his security team. Reagan was wounded when one of the bullets ricocheted off of the limousine, striking him under the left armpit. Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy, and policeman Thomas Delahanty were also wounded during the shooting. President Reagan’s wounds were not noticed until he began to cough up blood. He was then taken to the George Washington University Hospital. After twelve days in the hospital, he was able to return to the White House with a new commitment to changing the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.

—From the Reagan Library Website

In 1982 a jury found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity, and he landed at St. Elizabeth’s mental hospital. There Hinckley struck up a romantic relationship with Leslie deVeau, who had killed her 10-year-old daughter with a shotgun, and the pair soon became engaged. Jay Leno predicted trouble in the relationship because “some guys can’t stand it when the wife is more successful.” The child-killer was released in 1990 but Hinckley still wore his engagement ring and even sought to be released into the murderer’s custody.

After James Brady died in 2014, the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia declined to pursue criminal charges against Hinckley. The man who tried to kill Reagan received full-time conditional release in 2016 and that got a rise out of Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis, who was on to Hinckley from the start:

I’m not at all comfortable with the decision. To me, it doesn’t represent justice as much as it does his efforts to methodically wait out and wear down the system.

Over the years, Hinckley’s freedom was increased incrementally so that by 2011, 30 years after the shooting, Hinckley was regularly visiting his mother in Williamsburg.

But now what he’s been working toward all these years has happened: A man who shot four people, including the President of the United States, will be granted his freedom. He’ll have to check in with his doctors, and he’ll have to live with his now 90-year-old mother – who’ll hardly be able to confine him or cramp his style, given her advanced age.

His doctors have said that his psychosis and depression have been in remission for decades, and his narcissistic personality disorder has lessened – but that’s quite a feat, since the disorder has no known cure.

[Hinckley’s lawyer Barry Levine] also wanted me to meet with Hinckley and offer him forgiveness. I didn’t put this exchange in my article, but Levine said to me, “The Pope forgave the man who shot him.” I replied, “That’s why he’s the Pope, and I’m not.”

To review, while at Saint Elizabeth’s, Hinckley attempted correspondence with mass murderers Ted Bundy and Charles Manson. . . Mostly, Hinckley’s been patient. He was also patient on March 30, 1981. Around 1:45 p.m., he waved as my father stepped out of his limousine and walked into the Washington Hilton to deliver a speech.

About 40 minutes later, when my father walked back outside, Hinckley yelled, “President Reagan! President Reagan!” Then he crouched like a marksman and fired six shots, changing four lives in a matter of minutes.

If Hinckley is haunted by anything, I believe, it’s that he didn’t succeed in his mission to assassinate the president. Now, though, he’s getting what he’s patiently waited for: freedom.

“FREEDOM AT LAST!!!” tweeted Hinckley in 2022 when he gained full release with no conditions. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, a Clinton appointee who served as associate independent counsel for the Iran-Contra Investigation, ruled that Hinckley displayed no symptoms of mental illness and “If he hadn’t tried to kill the president, he would have been unconditionally released a long, long, long time ago.” Patti Davis was not surprised.

I don’t believe that John Hinckley feels remorse. He and his attorney have worked the system from the beginning and, finding a judge who was sympathetic to them, made this day inevitable.

Hinckley fancies himself a folksinger and was slated to perform at the Hotel Huxley in Naugatuck, Connecticut, on March 30 – 43 years to the day after he shot Reagan. After the gig was postponed, Hinckley called himself a “victim of cancel culture.” He’s not, and there’s a lesson here for Secret Service officers. Learn from your mistakes.

If someone shoots the president, put your weapon on full auto and empty a couple magazines into him. If you see someone preparing to shoot a presidential candidate, shoot him dead before he can get off a shot. Just kind of a simple thing. The people will thank you for your service.