(NewsSpace.com) – Political tensions are higher than ever in the months leading up to the 2024 election. Extremists on both sides are fanning the flames with their rhetoric. The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was the first in more than four decades. Ironically, one would-be assassin is now calling for peace.
On March 30, 1981, while on his way out of a Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC, then-President Ronald Reagan was shot. The perpetrator, John Hinckley Jr., spent decades in prison for the attempt on the former US leader’s life. He was released a few years ago and is now apparently trying to preach peace. On Wednesday, July 17, just four days after the attempt on Trump’s life, Hinkley took to X, formerly Twitter, saying “violence is not the way to go,” urging his followers to “Give peace a chance.”
In 1981, Hinkley fired six shots off at Reagan and his security team with a .22-caliber gun, using “devastator” bullets. He did not hit the former president directly, but one of the bullets struck his limousine and ricocheted off, striking Reagan in the armpit. Three others, including press secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent, and a police officer, were injured as well.
Reagan’s injuries weren’t immediately apparent until he started coughing up blood. He was then taken to the hospital, where he spent 12 days before returning to his duties. Brady suffered partial paralysis and brain damage. Hinkley pleaded not guilty and was found not guilty by reason of insanity. That particular verdict led to legislators passing laws restricting the use of an insanity defense.
Hinkley received a lot of pushback on social media for his statement, with many calling him out for his past crimes, for which he spent 41 years in a facility and then received conditional release. He was fully released, without conditions, in 2022.
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