The Brady Bill Was Unnecessary

by Dr. Gerard Emershaw

Ronald Reagan’s former Press Secretary James Brady has died. Brady was, of course, most famous for taking up the cause of handgun control after he was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. during the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981. The attack, in which President Reagan and police officer Thomas Delahanty were also shot, left Brady partially paralyzed. The efforts of James Brady and his wife Sarah ultimately led to Congress passing the Brady Handgun Prevention Act in 1994. The law prevented convicted felons, fugitives from justice, unlawful drug users or addicts, those judged mentally defective or committed to a mental institution, illegal aliens, those with dishonorable discharges from the United States military, those who have renounced United States citizenship, those under restraining order, and those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors from possessing a firearm.

The attempted assassination of President Reagan led to the right blaming the First Amendment and the left blaming the Second Amendment. John Hinckley, Jr. was obsessed with actress Jodie Foster and the movie Taxi Driver. Taxi Driver, a 1976 Martin Scorsese movie, starred Robert De Niro as a depressed New York City cab driver who plans to assassinate a presidential candidate but winds up saving a teenaged prostitute played by Jodie Foster. Hinckley sought to assassinate the President so that he could impress Foster. Events such as this always invariably lead to discussions that movies need to be censored and guns need to be banned. However, the truth of the matter is that neither proposition is true. The attempted assassination of President Reagan should never have occurred. James Brady should never have been so grievously wounded. Furthermore, had the Brady Act been in place in 1980, it would not have prevented the attack.

John Hinckley, Jr. was not a convicted felon, a fugitive, a drug addict, an illegal alien, or a dishonorably discharged former service member. He had not renounced his American citizenship, been under a restraining order, or ever been convicted of domestic abuse. While Hinckley had been treated for depression and was taking medication, he had never been institutionalized. The Röhm RG-14 revolver which Hinckley used had been purchased at a pawn shop, but he could have legally bought it then or now.

What would have prevented the attempted assassination of President Reagan was common sense. On October 9, 1980, Hinckley was arrested in Nashville, Tennessee on weapons charges when he attempted to sneak three guns in his suitcase at Nashville International Airport in order to board a flight to New York City with them. Hinckley was released after paying a fine of $62.50.

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies have never shown much respect for the Fourth Amendment. The NSA actions that have been revealed by Edward Snowden over the last year are more than enough proof of that. Things were not much different in the early 1980s. The NSA had not long before established Minaret, an illegal watchlist of American telegraphs and telephone calls made between 1967 and 1973. Nixon had used this information to help formulate his “enemies list” only a few years prior to the attempt on President Reagan’s life. Similarly, the FBI had engaged in COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) from at least 1956 to 1971. The methods of COINTELPRO went beyond the legal procedures ordinarily employed by the FBI in fighting crime and transformed into the brutal and extralegal methods common among criminal regimes. COINTELPRO infiltrated organizations in order to disrupt and discredit them. It spread disinformation about groups through bogus publications attributed to activist groups, anonymous letters, anonymous phone calls, and set up counterfeit activist organizations run by government agents in order to spread further disinformation. Even more egregiously, COINTELPRO made activists appear to be criminals through illegal surveillance, fabricated evidence, perjured testimony, and the discriminatory and capricious use of the law against its targets. Most alarming was a pattern of break-ins, vandalism, and assaults carried out by the police and FBI in order to terrify and disrupt activist groups. The strange thing is that while federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies had no qualms about violating the Constitution to attack the American people, they were not so inclined to use their powers under the Constitution to defend the people.

Having arrested John Hinckley, Jr. attempting to sneak concealed weapons through an airport onto a flight bound for New York City, local law enforcement informed the FBI, which showed little interest and told Nashville police to handle it locally. The fact that Hinckley was arrested with illegal concealed weapons that he was attempting to take across state lines provided ample probable cause to search his home and dig deeper. Had law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Hinckley’s home, they would have likely learned of his obsession with Jodie Foster. They may have also learned that the purpose of his visit to Nashville was that he was stalking President Jimmy Carter, whom he was planning to assassinate. President Carter had been in Nashville that day, but he left town before Hinckley could get a shot at him.

So often, the government fails in its job of protecting the life, liberty, and property of its citizens. And when it fails, it often reacts by instituting laws and policies which violate the natural rights of individuals. When the FBI failed to protect President Reagan, the Congress violated the Second Amendment natural right to bear arms of citizens by passing the Brady Bill. When multiple federal agencies failed to thwart the 9/11 attacks, Congress passed the Constitution-shredding PATRIOT Act. Future government failures are likely to lead to more laws which violate the Constitution without making the country any safer. Unfortunately, there is little indication that the government or the people have learned any lessons from such unnecessary tragedies.