THE MAN who shot President Ronald Reagan is allowed to spend 17 days on release from a psychiatric hospital each month under a new court ruling, writes Mike Parker in Los Angeles. The freedom given to failed assassin John Hinckley Jr, which includes permission to drive to his mother’s house, has sparked a storm in the US and shocked former First Lady Nancy, 92. Hinckley, now 58, fired a hail of bullets at the late president in March 1981, in Washington, seriously wounding him. Three others were badly hurt including press secretary James Brady, now 73.