The Bullet That Nearly Killed President Reagan

He was wounded. My God. He was, the president was hit. He is in stable condition. All this information, the president was hit. 1981, Washington DC. The president steps out of a hotel into what should have been a routine afternoon. Cameras clicking with reporters shouting questions. The Secret Service scanning the crowd. Then six shots crack through the air. Agents move instantly. One grabs Reagan. Another shields him with his own body as chaos erupts. Nobody knows yet who's hit or how bad it is. Reagan is shoved into the limousine. He thinks he just bruised a rib during the scramble. He even tries to brush it off. But inside the car, an agent notices something wrong. Blood. More blood than there should be. The motorcade suddenly changes direction, away from the White House and straight to George Washington University Hospital. Within minutes, doctors discover the truth. A bullet is lodged inches from the president's heart. His lung is filling with blood and the situation is far more serious than anyone outside the hospital realizes. For a few tense hours, the United States is closer to losing a president than most Americans will ever know. So how did someone get that close to the president with a gun? Was the would-be assassin just a disturbed lone actor or is there more to the story? And what really changed behind the scenes after Reagan was shot and what hasn't the public been told? Let's try to find out. Hello, I'm Mike Joberg, a Marine Corps veteran and filmmaker, and we will try to answer these questions on today's episode of Forgotten History. The beginning of the toughest 26 days in Marine Corps history. 36th president of the United States died this afternoon. March 30th, 1981. The Washington Hilton Hotel. It was supposed to be a routine. The president giving a speech to union members. A few handshakes, then back to the White House. At 2 27 p.m. President Ronald Reagan exit the hotel's side entrance, known as the presidential walk. It's considered secure. A short covered walkway. The press pulled behind a rope line while the secret service was positioned between the president and the crowd. Reagan smiles, raises a hand, and waves. But standing just a few feet away is a 25-year-old named John Hinckley Jr. He had been lingering in the crowd unnoticed. No sniper rifle or elaborate setup. Just a .22 caliber revolver tucked beneath his coat. And in less than two seconds, he fires six shots. The sound is sharp and confusing. At first, some in the crowd think they're firecrackers. Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy turns his body toward the president, spreading his arms to shield them. He takes a bullet to the abdomen. Police officer Thomas Delahunty is hit in the neck. And press secretary James Brady collapses. A bullet striking his head. Agents shove Reagan towards the limousine. He's pushed hard enough that he later jokes about it. But something else happened in that scramble. One of the bullets ricochets off the armored limousine and strikes Reagan under his left arm. But the president doesn't realize it. He notices a sharp pain and assumes it's from being shoved into the car. Inside the limo, Reagan coughs. Then he coughs again. He looks down. There's blood on his hand. Agent Jerry Parr makes a split decision that may have saved the presidency. Instead of heading back to the White House, he orders the motorcade to George Washington University Hospital. When Reagan arrives, he is walking, but weakening fast. Doctors quickly discover the truth. A bullet entered under his left arm, ricocheted off a rib, punctured his lung, and stopped just short of his heart. The internal bleeding is severe. His oxygen levels drop. Minutes matter now. But before surgery to save his life, Reagan keeps the mood surprisingly calm. To the medical team, he says, please tell me you're all Republicans. Even in that moment, humor. Surgery lasts nearly two hours. Doctors remove the bullet, repair the lung damage, and stabilize the bleeding. The outcome is not certain until it's all over. Outside the hospital, the country holds its breath. Cold War tensions are still high, and the wounded president creates global uncertainty. Markets wobble while foreign governments watch closely. Nobody wants instability in a nuclear superpower. Then the update comes. The president is going to live. And almost immediately, the story shifts. What could have been a national trauma starts turning into something else. A narrative of toughness, composure, and resilience under fire. That reaction would shape Reagan's presidency far more than the bullet itself. For a few days, the country watched the hospital instead of the White House. Reagan sitting up, waving and smiling, like nothing was going to slow him down. That visual reassurance calmed people more than any press briefing. Because the truth was, the wound had been serious. He had massive blood loss and a punctured lung. Doctors said minutes made the difference. If Agent Jerry Parr had gone straight to the White House instead of the hospital, this story might have ended very differently. But Reagan leaned into the recovery the same way he handled the shooting. Steady, optimistic, and almost defiant. Visitors noticed his mood. Nurses talked about how he kept joking. Staff saw a president determined not to look fragile. Even political opponents acknowledged his toughness. Did you ever think you might die? No, although I didn't just leave it to chance. I talked to my friend upstairs about that. But you never thought that this was the end? No. Do some people in that situation, in a trauma situation, think it's over? No, I found out afterward that a lot of those people there at the hospital thought it could very likely be the end. Approval ratings rose. Sympathy played a role, sure, but so did perception. Americans saw a leader who had been tested physically and didn't panic. In the middle of a cold war, that image carried weight. There was also a practical impact. Security protocols tightened immediately. Closer perimeter control. Faster emergency medical response planning. More aggressive secret service extraction drills. Those changes still influence presidential security today. But politically and culturally, something bigger happened. The shooting didn't weaken Reagan. It reinforced the narrative already forming around him. Calm under pressure, confident, unshaken. As Reagan recovered, attention turned to the shooter. Who he was, why he did it, and whether this was political or something more organized. Investigators quickly ruled out terrorism, foreign involvement, or ideological motive. The reality was stranger and harder for people to process. John Hinckley Jr. came from an affluent Texas family. Good education, financial support, and opportunities most people never get. But he had been spiraling mentally for years. He became isolated, depressed, and obsessed. That obsession centered on actress Jodie Foster. Hinckley believed a dramatic act would impress her. He had written her letters, tried to contact her, even moved near Yale where she was studying. The assassination attempt was, in his mind, a twisted bid for attention. The country struggled with that explanation. People wanted a political plot or something rational. Instead, they got a story about mental illness, celebrity fixation, and security gaps. Then came the trial. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The verdict shocked the public. Many Americans felt justice had failed, especially with James Brady, who was left permanently disabled from his head wound. The backlash led to major changes. Tighter federal insanity defense standards, new gun control legislation, later supported by Brady himself, and long-term reforms in presidential security planning. Hinckley was committed to a psychiatric hospital rather than prison. Where he remained for decades, before eventually getting a supervised release on September 10th, 2016. He received a full unconditional release on June 15th, 2022. So that happened. Were you angry? Well, I didn't know for quite a while until they began to tell me about the young man that had done this, and what his problem was, that he was not exactly on a normal basis. And so then, I added him to my prayers, prayers for myself, that, well, if I wanted healing for myself, maybe he should have some healing for himself. The Pope forgave the man who shot him. You forgive John Hinckley? Yes. I found out he wasn't, he wasn't thinking on all, on all cylinders, yeah. After the shooting, within weeks, Ronald Reagan was back in the Oval Office. Within months, he was traveling again. The scar under his arm became part of the story, but it never defined him physically or politically. In fact, the years after the assassination attempt became some of the most consequential of his presidency. He pushed forward with his economic program, sweeping tax cuts, deregulation efforts, and a broader push to reduce inflation that had crippled the country in the 1970s. Supporters credited his policies with helping ignite a long economic expansion. He escalated military spending and intensified pressure on the Soviet Union, pairing strength with diplomacy. By the end of his presidency, he was negotiating directly with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. And in 1987, standing in Berlin, he delivered the line that would echo for decades. Framed against the soaring Brandenburg Gate, now part of the wall which divides Berlin, President Reagan challenged the Soviet Union to offer a dramatic signal on human rights to underscore its new policy of openness. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. Two years later, the Berlin Wall fell. Whether critics agree with all his policies or not, Reagan left the office with high approval ratings and a reputation for restoring confidence after a turbulent decade. The man who nearly died in 1981 finished two full terms. He left office in 1989. In 1994, he publicly announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. And a decade later, on June 5th, 2004, Ronald Reagan died at the age of 93. When Americans look back on him, they remember different things. Some remember the tax cuts, the Cold War rhetoric, the Berlin Wall. But many remember something simpler. A president who took a bullet, recovered, and never let the moment define him as a victim. For millions of Americans, that resilience became part of his legacy. Let us know your thoughts about Ronald Reagan in the comments below. Thank you for watching Forgotten History. Please like, share, and subscribe. If you have any comments or show ideas, we'd love to hear from you. Thanks again.