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On March 30, 1981, Hinckley wandered within a few steps of Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton Hotel and . Reagan was injured but survived the assassination attempt. His press secretary, James Brady, suffered lifelong neurological trauma after a bullet hit him in the head. A Secret Service agent and police officer were also wounded.

Hinckley had mental health issues and claimed the shooting was meant to somehow curry favor with actress Jodie Foster. He was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and held in a mental institution for years.

I used to be the editor of the weekly newspaper in Evergreen, Colo., where the Hinckley family lived in an exclusive mountain country club area. Every year near the anniversary of the Reagan shooting, folks in town would wonder, “What ever happened to Hinckley?�

Every now and then, we would write a look-back story or try to check in with the family.

Hinckley was released from a mental institution two years ago. On Tuesday, he tweeted on the social media platform X: “Violence is not the way to go. Give peace a chance.�

One would-be presidential assassin was apparently responding to a similar attempt more than four decades later. On Saturday, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks from a rooftop near a political rally in Pennsylvania held by former President Donald Trump. One person at the rally died; two others were injured. Trump’s ear was bloodied. The FBI is investigating the incident as an assassination attempt but, unlike the shooting of Reagan by Hinckley, has not yet identified a motive.

A lot has changed in the 43 years since the Reagan shooting. But then, as now, there were investigations of the Secret Service’s response to the shooting. Then, as now, both sides of the political aisle offered outpourings of support for the victims, with many voices decrying political violence.

One thing, at least so far, is decidedly different.

Brady would become one of the nation’s foremost gun-safety advocates. And even though it took a dozen years because of opposition from the National Rifle Association, he and his wife, Sarah, would push through the Brady Bill, . The law requires a background check to purchase a handgun. The bill received support from former presidents in both political parties, including Reagan.

A year later, also with the support of Reagan, Clinton signed an assault weapons ban, which made illegal the sale of semiautomatic assault weapons like the AR-15.

That deadly weapon of war, which Crooks used to try to kill Trump, became legal again in 2004 after the ban expired. It has become synonymous with mass shootings in America, being used by killers to mow down schoolchildren and concertgoers. And yet, the party of Reagan has completely turned away from common-sense regulation.

It’s tragic.

This week, President Joe Biden, who backed the assault weapons ban in 1994, said it’s time to ban them again.

“An AR-15 was used in the shooting of Donald Trump,� Biden in Nevada. “This was the assault weapon that killed so many others, including children. It’s time to outlaw them. … More children in America die of a gunshot wound than any other reason. That’s stunning and that is sick. And it’s sheer cowardice if we do nothing about it.�

Biden takes a lot of flak these days for being old, and he may bow out of the presidential race before it’s all said and done. But it’s worth noting that he lived through a political time when members of both parties responded to tragedy with a unity of purpose.

A return to those days would be welcome by folks from Orlando to Las Vegas, from Newtown to Uvalde, and any other city that at least once a year remembers a shooting that could have been prevented.