Posted on 03/30/2006 7:21:09 AM PST by Nextrush
At around 2:25 p.m. on March 30,1981 President Ronald Reagan was shot as he exited the Washington Hilton Hotel.
A volley of shots rang out from the press area where 25 year-old John Hinckley Jr., who had gotten to within 15 feet of the President, was holding a .22 caliber pistol.
Hinckley shot not only President Reagan, but a Washington police officer, a Secret Service agent who put himself in the line of fire to protect the President, and White House Press Secretary James Brady, who was shot in the head.
A Secret Service agent pushed Reagan into a limosuine and rushed to George Washington University Hospital, where he walked in under his own power and underwent surgery.
Thankfully, Ronald Reagan quickly recovered.
The mainstream media, though, was quick to make gun control a big issue in the aftermath and the Brady gun control campaign launched by James Brady's wife eventually led to a gun control law.
Also, John Hinckley ended up being found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to a mental hospital. In recent years he has been able to go on visits to his family.
I remember that day because I was working in a college radio newsroom writing news when a girl came in and shouted "Reagan's been shot." I jumped up and began tuning my transistor radio hearing a reporter's decription of the scene of the shooting, but no details on whether the President was hit. Then the radio died because the batteries were out of juice.
I ran over to my dorm room for fresh batteries and saw the video being played back with Secret Service agents waving the limo to get away while Hinckley was wrestled with in the midst of the press corps.
By the time I made it back to the station, I got a request from the news director to get his TV set. He threw me the keys to his dorm room and I ran for it. I remember yelling to students in their rooms watching "Was he hit?" or something like that.
After getting back to the newsroom we watched TV, listened to a radio network feed and read the wire copy as it spit out.
But I also wanted to tell you the reaction of one student who worked at the station. This African Studies major ran into the newsroom and said "Yeah, they got him."
(The guy was a leftie who produced a radio documentary using the last message of Jim Jones, recorded as the Kool Aid was prepared for the mass suicide. This guy was repeating the charge of Jones that the CIA was out to get him. The guy was actually pushing the idea the mass suicide was a CIA mass murder plot. By the way on that tape "Rev. Jones" said that the Peoples Temple was "Marxist-Leninist.")
I prefer this "stalwart President Reagan stares death down 25 years ago, Chuck Norris unavailable for comment"
If he was still alive today he would not believe what had happened to HIS Republican party!!
"If he was still alive today he would not believe what had happened to HIS Republican party!!"
He's rolling over in his grave.
We must remain thankful that Reagan recovered quickly from this incident!
Even at this time, his good nature and sense of humor was evident:
"Honey, I forgot to duck." -to Nancy after the shooting.
He also told the doctor that "I hope you're a Republican!"
"Honey... I forgot to duck!"
One of the GREAT Americans in history.
What an awful day. If he hadn't made it the whole course of history might have been different. Thank God the will of the voters was not overturned by the act of one crazed moron.
I agree. The world would be in much worse shape had God not spared his life.
I was 9th grader in class at North Davis Jr. High in Clearfield, Utah when someone came in a said that the President had been shot.
And the classy response from the (liberal Democrat!) doctor: "Sir, we're all Republicans today." :)
To show what a nice classy area I live in, the local paper ran an article the next day quoting at least 2 random people they approached saying they were sorry Reagan did not die. Not surprising in a place that always votes 80+% Democrat. One lady was shocked by the shooting and said "I can't believe it. What's happening to us?" I asked the same thing, but my greater concern was over those who would cheer at Reagan's possible demise more so than over the shooting itself.
A large percentage of democrats are treasonous and hate this country. And Reagan personifies this country like few others ever have.
The African Studies student cited in the one post as cheering the Reagan shooting and lauding Jim Jones was not only venal, but a fool and a remarkably stupid one at that. Interesting that the remaining losers led by Jim Jones to Jonestown, Guyana (and who were hoping to move to the now defunct "paradise" known as the Soviet Union) were the first to shriek about why the US wasn't helping them after the "reverend" convinced their cohorts to drink poisoned Kool Aid. For some reason, the Jones followers didn't call on the USSR to help them out or gather the bodies of the "reverend's" deluded followers; it was the US and as I recall, we paid every penny of it.
A very scary day for our Republic. I went on a vacation to a Club Med in the Bahamas a few days later. The people leaving, as I was coming into the Club, had no info at all. Club Med surely does block out the world for your relaxation!
We all have our "get it" moments and this related to one of mine.
I made a point of recording a Nightline special on Reagan after he left office. Within 5 minutes they had said that Reagan's presidency was a wreck and only sympathy from the shooting saved his legacy.
I wanted to puke. I have never watched a minute of that ragshow since.
That's pretty bad. I lived in Boston at the time, where Reagan was generally spelled "Ray-Gun", and never heard anyone say anything that bad.
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