30 Years Later, Guns Are Still Too Easy to Get

Sarah Brady: On anniversary of Reagan shooting, she holds out hope
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 30, 2011 12:57 PM CDT
Sarah Brady: 30 Years After Reagan Shooting, It's Still Too Easy to Get Guns
James Brady, former White House press secretary for Ronald Reagan, chats with journalists as his wife, Sarah, looks on in 2009.   (Getty Images)

Thirty years after John Hinckley fired a bullet into her husband's brain in an attempt to kill Ronald Reagan, Sarah Brady can't understand why gun reform is still so hard to pass. In her Washington Post op-ed, she criticizes Republicans in particular, especially those who claim to revere Reagan but oppose the "common-sense" gun laws he himself backed. This made it all the harder for her to "watch history repeat itself" with the Gabby Giffords shooting. "It’s hard to believe that any American would sully his credibility by suggesting that a 32-round assault clip has a legitimate use in our society."

She and husband Jim continue to work for reform and hold out hope that the NRA's powerful grip on lawmakers will one day disappear. Brady likens it to the civil rights movement. "It took audacity to stand up, face dogs, hoses and lynch mobs, and fight for it," she writes. "Now is the time for our elected officials to stand up and lead the way to a nation free of gun violence." (More Sarah Brady stories.)

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