Sunday, April 3, 2011

30 years ago in Le Monde: Reagan and Kennedy syndrome

On March 30, 1981, sixty-nine days after his inaugural address, President Ronald Reagan was the victim of a bombing outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington. The author of six shots that aim is a deranged John Hinckley, who committed this act to attract attention to himself with a young actress, Jodie Foster, moving prostitute in Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese.

In a letter found at his hotel in Washington, he wrote: "I will prove my love by a historic act." A few days after the tragedy, the press revealed that John Hinckley had bought two 22-caliber revolver in a store in Dallas (Texas), close to where John Kennedy fell. This information recovery time debate on gun legislation, quickly smothered by the powerful lobby of their supporters, the National Rifle Association, which does not hesitate to wield the constitutional amendments, to speak of tradition, freedom of expression.

James Brady, former press adviser and spokesman for Ronald Reagan, paralyzed for life since the attack, involves a long battle against the firearms. On 24 November ... 1993, Congress passed the Brady bill, which for the first time in the history of the United States, introduced a degree of control over arms sales.

In partnership with INA

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