Attorneys for the man who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981 will be asking a judge to let him spend more time away from a Washington mental hospital with the goal of eventually allowing him to live outside the facility full time.

John Hinckley, who was found by a jury to be insane when he shot and wounded Reagan, has for years been able to spend days at his mother's home in Virginia. On Wednesday, a Washington judge will begin hearing arguments that Hinckley should be allowed additional visits of 17 and 24 days. A court document says Washington's St. Elizabeths Hospital also wants the ability to decide if he should live away from the facility full-time.

Government lawyers oppose the plan, calling it "premature and ill conceived."