anybody think John Hinkley jr was really insane?

[Madeline]

Anyone trying to impress Jodie Foster has to be crazy...

I have always felt badly that she was the object of this loon's fantasies. That cannot have been easy, and she was so young at the time.

 

[xotoxi]

He tried to kill President Reagan and severely wounded the Press Secretary in 1981. The defense said he watched the movie "Taxi Driver" about 70 times and became infatuated with the actress Jodie Foster. That's it. He was found NOT GUILTY by reason of insanity and spent a relatively easy 25 years in a hospital taking drugs and watching cable TV. He was ordered conditionally released in 2009.

Yes. He suffered from a classic erotomaniac delusion, a symptom of psychosis.

Prior to Reagan he trailed Carter to try to assassinate him for the same motive. He wasn't politically motivated and his delusion was so outrageous that it is doubtful that he truly understood the consequences of his actions.

I personally don't think that "insanity" can be allowed in the defense of a Presidential assassination attempt. Had Reagan been killed, Hinkley should have had a trial to prove that he did it, and then executed. The fact that he was not killed gives me some pause on the death penalty.

 

[Revere]

He tried to kill President Reagan and severely wounded the Press Secretary in 1981. The defense said he watched the movie "Taxi Driver" about 70 times and became infatuated with the actress Jodie Foster. That's it. He was found NOT GUILTY by reason of insanity and spent a relatively easy 25 years in a hospital taking drugs and watching cable TV. He was ordered conditionally released in 2009.

It's interesting that the Reagan assassination attempt is brought up at this time.

"The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was an Act of the United States Congress that, for the first time, instituted federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States... The Act was named after James Brady, who was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. during an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981."

It want to know how the shooter in Arizona got possession of the weapon that he used. Does the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act need to be strengthened?

OK, I'll play.

Point to one thing or several things Jared Loughner did that should have kept him from buying a firearm legally. Marijuana possession? Running a red light?

If you can't get someone declared mentally incompetent after they have already committed a capital crime, how the hell are you going to do it just for the purpose of denying them a handgun?

 

[geauxtohell]

Check again Maddy. He is still technically in the hospital's custody but in '09 A federal judge ordered him conditionally released and according to Wiki he can apply for a drivers license.

Could be...I had trouble finding exact information. However, I assure you, the sentence for aggravated assault or assault with a deadly or attempted murder is not 28 years. Would you have been happier if Hinckley had served 15 or 20 years in prison, untreated, and was then released?

There are problems with our legal system's handling of the criminally insane. Myself, I'd be supportive of a change to "Guilty, But Insane".

I would have been happy if the mainstream left leaning media and the ignorant lefties acknowledged that the attempted assassination was politically motivated rather than "for Jodie Foster". I would have been satisfied with a logical sentence of time in prison. I'm surprised there was no attempt to pass a law making it a life sentence to attempt to murder an elected official but Reagan was a republican so there was minimal outcry when the perp was found not guilty.

You apparently think Hinckley's defense was a cop out because he did it "for Jodie Foster".

All delusions are weird, that's why they are delusions. Of the various types of delusions (paranoid, etc), erotomania is one type of them.

Erotomania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hinckley had seen "Taxi Driver" and was obsessed with Foster and wanted to be her real life "Travis Bickel".

 

[geauxtohell]

He tried to kill President Reagan and severely wounded the Press Secretary in 1981. The defense said he watched the movie "Taxi Driver" about 70 times and became infatuated with the actress Jodie Foster. That's it. He was found NOT GUILTY by reason of insanity and spent a relatively easy 25 years in a hospital taking drugs and watching cable TV. He was ordered conditionally released in 2009.

It's interesting that the Reagan assassination attempt is brought up at this time.

"The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was an Act of the United States Congress that, for the first time, instituted federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States... The Act was named after James Brady, who was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. during an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981."

It want to know how the shooter in Arizona got possession of the weapon that he used. Does the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act need to be strengthened?

OK, I'll play.

Point to one thing or several things Jared Loughner did that should have kept him from buying a firearm legally. Marijuana possession? Running a red light?

If you can't get someone declared mentally incompetent after they have already committed a capital crime, how the hell are you going to do it just for the purpose of denying them a handgun?

To my knowledge Lougher hadn't done anything prior to the shooting that would warrant involuntary commitment and a psychiatric evaluation.

If he had a psychiatric evaluation, if he was psychotic, they would have quickly figured it out.

If he wasn't psychotic, then Lougher is probably a paranoid personality disorder who went temporarily psychotic, an antisocial personality disorder, or substance induced psychosis.

 

[USArmy Soldier]

the US Constitution mandates that John Hinckley Jr. be freed RIGHT NOW!!! He was not insane and he did not have any disability whatsoever because there are no absolutely no disabled people in the world and SSI-Disablity should be abolished!!! He should have been given the Nobel Peace prize for 1981 for fighting that year for American and world freedom, especially for the right to a job, against a dictator who can not get along with other nations!!! His only punishment should be that he sentenced to 5 years the US Armed Forces and if Reagan was killed that day he would have been given the job of UN Secretary General while he is in prison!!!!

 

[Madeline]

the US Constitution mandates that John Hinckley Jr. be freed RIGHT NOW!!! He was not insane and he did not have any disability whatsoever because there are no absolutely no disabled people in the world and SSI-Disablity should be abolished!!! He should have been given the Nobel Peace prize for 1981 for fighting that year for American and world freedom, especially for the right to a job, against a dictator who can not get along with other nations!!! His only punishment should be that he sentenced to 5 years the US Armed Forces and if Reagan was killed that day he would have been given the job of UN Secretary General while he is in prison!!!!

And whitehall doubts there are insane people in the country......

 

[Ozmar]

Yeah, I think confinement to a mental institution is a cake-walk compared to hard time in a max security prison. We know he was found not guilty by a jury. The question remains did he know the difference between right and wrong. I would venture a guess that he had a defense team second to none and the jury was swayed by biased testimony from alleged psychiatric "experts" who were no doubt paid for their testimony.

In the end it doesn't matter what we "know," or think we "know." In the end, the jury found him not guilty be reason of insanity, and he was committed to an institution, away from society. Unless you personally feel you are qualified to diagnose the man, what bearing does you opinion hold at all?