In the wake of the attempted assassination of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, an unlikely advocate for peace has come forward: The man who shot and almost killed President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Stealing a page from The Beatles, John Hinckley took to social-media site X on Wednesday to suggest that “violence is not the way to go” and to ask his followers to “give peace a chance.”
Trump was grazed by an assassin’s bullet on Saturday in an incident that also claimed the life of a firefighter at a rally in Butler, Pa.
Beyond hawking his cat paintings, Hinckley hasn’t been active on social media in recent months.
Hinckley gained notoriety after firing at Reagan — who, like Trump, was a Republican — as the president left the Hilson Hotel in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1981.
Saturday’s shooting also resulted in the death of one man, heroic firefighter Corey Comperatore, while the 1981 shooting resulted in the death of former Secret Service agent James Brady, whose death in 2014 was attributed to the injuries he sustained, according to the Virginia Medical Examiner’s office.
It was later revealed that Hinckley tried to assassinate the president as a way to impress actress Jodie Foster after he became obsessed with her.
He had originally planned to kill President Jimmy Carter during a campaign rally in Ohio.
Hinckley underwent years of psychiatric care and was granted unconditional release in June 2022. He currently lives in Williamsburg, Va.