Let’s Look at the Issues

James Brady died this week. For the last 30 years the former White House press secretary was the country’s most well known advocate for gun safety legislation. He had every reason to be. That’s because he himself was a victim of gun violence. He was critically injured in 1981 by a crazed gunman, John Hinckley Jr., who was trying to impress a woman he had never met, actress Jodie Foster, by assassinating Brady’s boss, President Ronald Reagan.

As many of you will recall, Reagan himself was seriously injured in the shooting. But he recovered relatively quickly and without lasting physical effects. The news wasn’t so good for James Brady. Shot in the head, he suffered serious brain damage. The shooting left Brady’s left arm immobile forever. It also severely weakened his left leg, impaired his speech and clouded his memory—all lasting effects.

It was a very long and very difficult recovery process for Brady. “What I was, I am not now,” Mr. Brady famously said during the process. “What I was, I will never be again.” But with the help of his loving family he did recover and he launched a campaign to end gun violence that still exists today. He ran the campaign from his wheelchair, assisted by his wife, Sarah.

While Brady’s recovery process was slow and difficult, it was nothing compared to the slowness and difficulty he experienced in trying to get Congress to pass sensible gun legislation. Fortunately, Brady did not give up easily. Each defeat along the way, each detour in the process, and each arch conservative legislator in the pocket of the National Rifle Association (NRA) gun manufacturers’ lobbying group didn’t stop James and Sarah Brady.

Finally, a dozen years after the shooting, Congress passed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, also called “The Brady Bill.” This law brought about background checks and waiting periods for most gun buyers. It is believed that since its enactment the Brady Bill has prevented the sale of more than 2 million handguns. In that sense, the law is a real lifesaver. James and Sarah Brady also succeeded in helping to pass legislation that banned the sale of assault weapons. That ban expired in 2004 under President George W. Bush, and the Bradys spent the last 10 years fighting for the restoration of the federal ban on these weapons of mass murder.

Unfortunately, Congress has still not restored the federal ban on assault weapons.

James and Sarah Brady did succeed with another initiative they supported: a law that closed a loophole that had permitted a gunman to buy weapons in Virginia even though he had earlier been committed to a mental hospital. The former mental hospital patient who was allowed by that loophole to purchase guns was Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people and wounded 17 others in the Virginia Tech massacre of 2007. The Bradys’ effort helped end that loophole, and President George W. Bush signed the measure into law in January, 2008.

“I wouldn’t be here in this damn wheelchair if we had common-sense legislation,” Mr. Brady said following a mass shooting in in 2011. He and his wife spoke eloquently on the subject of gun safety regulation time after time, especially after such horrific gun incidents such as the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

Several weeks after the attempt on Congresswoman Giffords’ life James Brady and his wife traveled to the White House to meet with President Obama. It was the 30th anniversary of Hinckley’s assassination attempt on President Reagan.

It was noted during that visit that the White House press room had been named after Brady during Bill Clinton’s presidency. President Obama clearly recognized the important role the Bradys played in tackling the entrenched gun culture and powerful gun lobby in the U.S., and, while he admitted the process was slow, he promised progress would be made.

As some of you may know, the Obama White House has set up a task force on preventing gun violence. The Bradys sent along their recommendations to this body, including the call for universal background checks and safety programs for the nation’s 300 million gun owners.

The argument over so-called Second Amendment rights will continue, of course, long after James Brady’s death. But he left us so much. His legacy is an inspiration to all those who suffer brain injuries. His legacy is a sense of community that had him advocating for public safety as a result of his experience, rather than retiring to a life of bitterness. His legacy is that sensible and sane gun safety laws do work in reducing gun violence.

His legacy is the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which prevented gun sales to an estimated two million criminals, domestic abusers and other dangerous people. New York’s Senator Charles Schumerm probably said it best: “Jim Brady was a giant, in both overcoming the shooting and passing the Brady Law. He may be gone, but so many live because of his efforts.”