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Former Highland Park resident John Hinckley Jr. was 25 when he purchased two revolvers for $47 each from Rocky’s Pawn Shop in Dallas on Oct. 13, 1980, with no waiting period or verified background check.
Months later he used one of the revolvers in the attempted assassination of former President Ronald Reagan that also wounded three others outside the Washington Hilton in 1981.
Hinckley was found not-guilty of all counts by reason of insanity in 1982. He remained in treatment at St. Elizabeths Hospital in D.C. and was monitored by Secret Service and federal courts until he was granted supervised release in 2016.
After spending time in Williamsburg, Va., Hinckley is set to be fully released by Wednesday, and even be allowed to perform his original music in a sold out show in New York City in July.
Hinckley’s case continues to draw national attention and helped inspire significant gun laws in the 1990′s. However, he sits on the brink of complete freedom as Congress discusses legislation again after the Uvalde school massacre, it’s unclear if 41 years of gun regulation would have kept a gun out of his hands.
Even if Hinckley could have submitted a verifiable background check, it would likely not have shown anything to prevent him from obtaining a gun in 1981.
Just four days before making the purchase, Hinckley had been arrested and charged with a misdemeanor in Nashville after attempting to take three handguns and ammunition on an American Airlines flight, according to a United Press International archive. His visit in Nashville coincided with a town-hall hosted by then President Carter.
A security officer at the airport said the FBI was contacted but opted not to question Hinckley. Therefore, Secret Service was not notified about the incident until after the assassination attempt.
Part of the attempt was tied to Hinckley’s obsession with actress Jodie Foster and the movie Taxi Driver. Hinckley reportedly attempted the assassination to impress Foster, and had written and called her several times before. Some of the notes had been hand-delivered to her dorm at Yale, and were reported to school authorities but not turned over to federal authorities until after the attack.
Senators led in part by Sen. John Cornyn announced a framework for bipartisan gun legislation on Sunday. The Texas Republican said the legislation will be drafted in the coming days and heard on the floor next week.
The framework included measures expanding access to mental health resources in schools and communities, giving states resources to carry out red flag laws and closing the “boyfriend loophole.”
It doesn’t include a uniform federal red flag law, but Robert Spitzer, author of six books on gun policy and a professor emeritus at SUNY Cortland, said it’s key that it includes resources for states to create them.
“Presumably, this incentive if it’s adopted will encourage more states to adopt red flag laws,” Spitzer said, adding that they could help disrupt a Hinckley-type case depending on the state and who made a report to authorities.
“If that kind of law was in effect, Hinckley’s parents might … well have had the presence of mind to report him to the police,” Spitzer said.
Hinckley grew up in University Park and went to Highland Park High School.
During the trial, his parents revealed they had barred him from their house weeks before the attack on the advice of a psychiatrist, according to The New York Times. His mother, JoAnn Hinckley said she had watched him go “downhill” for years before that and was worried he may commit suicide during this time.
At the time in 1981 Hinckley could have crossed state lines, filled out a registration form and with no federal background check, he could have still obtained a gun.
Today, Dru Stevenson, professor at the South Texas College of Law who has specialized in gun violence prevention research, said there are many steps to ensure the gun regulation process works.
He and other experts have said it’s vital to have a system that prevents someone with a gun removal order in one state from passing background checks in other states. An effective background check system would fully track and tie together each state’s records on removals in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
While Stevenson said he supports the current background check system, he notes that many agencies don’t report all they are supposed to in NICS. He noted inconsistencies between police departments and courts reporting people with felony convictions, and gaps in reporting people who have been institutionalized or legally declared mentally impaired.
“I think the red flag laws will help because they have helped in the places where they have them,” Stevenson said. “But there will be a lot of people that will fall through the cracks.”
In the attack, Hinckley also wounded press secretary James Brady, U.S. Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty. Brady was paralyzed during the incident by a shot to the head, and later died as a result of the shooting in 2014.
Before his death, however, Brady and his wife Sarah Brady were fierce gun-reform activists. Following the attempt, they campaigned for five-day waiting periods and background checks to purchase a gun. They were eventually successful in passing the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, seven years after the original legislation was introduced.
The bill required Brady Background Checks on all handgun purchases from federally licensed firearm dealers, and spurred the creation of the NICS in 1998.
NICS is run through the FBI and runs national background checks on prospective firearm buyers. 37 states including Texas are fully part of NICS.
After the Brady Bill in 1993, Stevenson said background checks have stopped over 100,000 people a year from buying a gun.
Since then, however, he said there has been legislation passed to make it harder to place regulations on guns, and to take measures to stop gun violence.
“The Brady Bill was a huge step forward,” Stevenson said. “And then we have mostly made steps backwards since then.”