President Ronald Reagan's Attempted assassination took place only 69 days after the start of his presidency. The date was Monday, March 30, 1981. It took place after a speaking engagment that was located at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C.
As he was walking outside to his limo, the shooter was hidden inside a crowd of people. The Secret Service was repeatidly searching the crowd. There was a group of people that were restricted by a rope line that were behind the president. The Secret Service didn't get a chance to scan that crowd and it contained someone who was completely prepared to kill the president.
John Hinckley Jr. shot Reagan and three others. They were all wounded. President Ronald Reagan was taken directly to the hospital. He had a punctured lung but, since everything was taken care of so quickly, he recovered fast and well. Reagan told the doctors that were operating on them that he hoped they were all Republicans.
Because of mental insanity, John Hinckley Jr. was found not guilty. Instead, he was sent to a mental hospital where he would remain. Hinckley thought that by killing the president he would be equal to Jodie Foster. Fosteer was an actress that Hinckley was obsessed with and he thought that if he played her part in a movie she made that it would make him equal to her.
President Ronald Reagan was the first president to survive an assassination attempt at that time. All the staff at the white house were anxious to have him back, once they knew he was recovering quickly. On April 11, he returned back to the white house from the hospital. Him and his wife waved outside of the white house and he wore a bullet proof vest under his red sweater.
I think it's really cool that he survived being shot at. It's hard to believe it took so long to get out of the hospital for a bullet wound! I guess he did have a fractured lung though. As far as his would-be-killer, I think that guy was really crazy! Even if he was mentally ill he should have been put in prison in my opinion.
Sources: Wikipedia RonaldReagan.com
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