sorry, I meant to say "shot at"........ thanks for the important correction.
Still, a would-be assassin, even a fruitcake, must be taken very seriously..... I doubt anyone would have looked at wimply John Hinckley, Jr. before his assassination attempt and evaluated him as much of a threat unless they could read his mind AND believed that he could in fact get that close to President Reagan with a gun..... it can't be easy to evaluate which angry and delusional leftists might turn out to be real threats and which are just the usual Al Franken or Alec Baldwin wannabes..........
Serious enough that it's pretty much assured the following claim never happened.
"They also said the agents should have more quickly figured out they weren't dealing with a real danger. Ultimately, the agents told the teen they would delete her investigation file."
There will rightfully be an investigative record of this girl as long as she lives, guaranteed.
If I recall, the Secret Service had seen Hinckley at appearances by Jimmy Carter. They screwed up big time.
Failing to develop any meaningful contact with Foster, Hinckley developed such plots as hijacking an airplane and committing suicide in front of her in order to gain her attention. Eventually he settled on a scheme to win her over by assassinating the president, on the theory that as a historical figure, he would be her equal. To this end, he trailed then-president Jimmy Carter from state to state, but was arrested in Nashville, Tennessee on a firearms charge.