James Brady

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under James Brady (disambiguation) .

James Brady in 2006

There was commotion during the March 30, 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan. Brady lay wounded on the ground.

James Scott "Jim" Brady (born August 29, 1940 in Centralia , Illinois , † August 4, 2014 in Alexandria , Virginia ) was an American government official and later activist . He was seriously injured in the assassination attempt on the president in 1981 while he was press secretary for Ronald Reagan and has been in a wheelchair ever since . Later, he and his wife began their commitment to tightening American gun law , which led to the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act , which was named after him .

Life

Early years

Brady attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , graduating in 1962 with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science . He joined Everett Dirksen , then a senator in Illinois , did an internship with the Justice Department's antitrust department and worked in various positions at public relations firms.

In 1973 he married Sarah Jane Kemp (1942–2015). James Scott Brady Jr. was born in 1978 from this marriage. Brady has a daughter from a previous marriage.

Activity in Washington

In 1973 he moved to the capital Washington and worked at various government departments and on the staff of Senator William V. Roth . He served as a press representative for John Connally , who tried to win the Republican Party nomination in the 1980 presidential election , but had to admit defeat to Ronald Reagan .

After the Republican Nomination Party, which nominated Ronald Reagan as a presidential candidate and George Bush as a vice-presidential candidate, he worked for the Reagan and Bush Committee. After the election victory, he became the spokesman for the President-elect . In early 1981, Reagan appointed him his administration's press secretary.

Assassination attempt on Reagan

On March 30, 1981, just over two months after Reagan took office, the mentally ill John Hinckley, Jr. committed an assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan , in which Reagan and three other people, including Brady, were injured. Brady was hit in the head by the first shot. As a result of the injuries, he was initially largely paralyzed on the left side, had memory problems and was unable to control his emotions when speaking. However, he was able to partially overcome language deficits and motor restrictions. According to the doctor treating him, he could then walk again. He was usually in a wheelchair and had slight difficulty speaking.

Officially, Brady was Reagan's press secretary throughout the entire term. In practice, however, he was never more active as such. In fact, the function was carried out by his acting representative Larry Speakes .

Commitment to stronger gun control

According to Sarah Brady, the serious injury of James Brady did not trigger her commitment to greater control of handguns. Rather, this was an event in the summer of 1985. At that time, her six-year-old son, James Brady Jr., got hold of a gun in the car of a family friend, which both the boy and she initially took for a toy. It was only when she picked up the pistol that she noticed that it was a live weapon. She was concerned about the incident and so she decided to take political action to restrict access to weapons.

The Brady couple became involved in 1985 with the organization Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI) , which lobbies for the tightening of gun law. It was founded in 1974 by another gun victim. Sarah Brady managed to more than double the membership of HCI. James Brady, who later admired Reagan and to whom he was formally subordinate during his entire presidency, spoke out publicly against the gun lobby NRA only after the successor George Bush took office , which received a lot of attention and attracted HCI. In the meantime, the couple has also turned away from the Republican Party.

At the national level, a law named after Jim Brady, the Brady Act , significantly tightened the legal situation for the purchase of weapons.

Brady Act

Bill Clinton signs the Brady Act in the presence of James Brady

The gun laws in the United States allows relatively easy access to handguns because gun ownership a fundamental right under the 2nd Amendment is. The assassin who shot Brady had previously become suspicious for attempting to bring three handguns on board an aircraft and had shown signs of mental health problems, but was still able to acquire the weapon with which he attempted the assassination attempt. To prevent such cases, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (short: Brady Act , also known as Brady Law or Brady Bill ) was passed.

The bill, initiated by the Brady couple, was tabled in its original form on February 4, 1987. This stipulated a mandatory waiting period when purchasing weapons. The proposal failed on September 15, 1988. A modified version was introduced in the following legislative period. This provided for the waiting times to be maintained only until a national database of criminal records and other relevant information had been set up, which was ultimately adopted.

Both the original draft and the amended version were repeatedly discussed by the two chambers of the Congress and in some cases adopted, but it was not until 1993 that the legal process for a final version was successfully concluded. It was signed by President Bill Clinton on November 30, 1993 .

The law requires handgun buyers in licensed gun stores to submit to an FBI database for criminal records. A five-day waiting period was required for buyers outside of arms stores. For long guns less stringent requirements apply.

The Brady Act is one of the most important restrictions on arms sales in the United States. When it went into effect in 1994, the law introduced a history check in 32 states that had previously not had such a requirement. In 1998 the mandatory waiting period expired with the introduction of a national register for criminal records.

Brady Campaign

In addition to working on bringing about the Brady Act, Jim and Sarah Brady also worked on other parts of HCI's work. When long-time HCI chairman Pete Shields retired in 1989, Sarah Brady was elected chairman. In 1991, she also became chair of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence , which was founded in 1983 as a sister organization of HCI. James Brady was an honorary member of the boards of both organizations.

In 2001, 20 years after the assassination, HCI and CPHV were renamed Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence ( Brady Campaign for short ) and Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in recognition of the work of the Brady couple .

Until recently, James Brady was, alongside his wife Sarah, a highly respected voice for the control of handguns, who got involved in public debate when tragic events occurred. On the 30th anniversary of the assassination, he and his concerns also received a lot of media attention.

In 2013, when Gabrielle Giffords , seriously injured in an assassination attempt in January 2011 , and her husband Mark Kelly founded their own organization to strengthen gun control, he believed Giffords had important qualities for advancing gun control issues. It has also been speculated that Giffords could become a successor to Brady.

death

James Brady died on August 4, 2014 at the age of 73 in Alexandria , Virginia of the aftermath of the attack.

Honors

In addition to naming the Brady Act and the Brady Campaign , James Brady received numerous other honors:

• 1989 recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal .
• In 1991 winner of the Maurice N. Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations , an organization of Reformed Jewish communities in the USA (together with his wife)
• 1992 winner of the C. Everett Koop Health Advocate Award from the American Hospital Association (with his wife)
• Winner of the Lenore and George W. Romney Citizen Volunteer Award in 1994 (with his wife)
• 1994 Jefferson Award Winner (with wife)
• Winner of the 1996 Margaret Chase Smith Award , presented by the National Association of Secretaries of State (along with his wife)
• On September 9, 1996, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the highest civilian honor in the United States, from President Bill Clinton .
• On 11 February 2000, the press conference room in was White House in James S. Brady Briefing Room renamed.
• He was bearer of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award of the Boy Scouts organization Boy Scouts of America .

Web links

Commons : James Brady  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• James Brady in the nndb (English)
• Text of the law in its original version ( Memento of July 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
• Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence website , directed by Sarah Brady on behalf of both parties

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} New York Times: James S. Brady, Symbol of Fight for Gun Control, Dies at 73 (August 4, 2014)
2. ↑ People Magazine, "The Undefeated" ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , April 1, 2002  
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} biography on the website of the Brady Campaign (English)
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} interview to radio station NPR with Jim and Sarah Brady on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the assassination (English)
5. ↑ Article in the science journal Nature , January 11, 2011.
6. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Incarnate Nightmare , June 18, 1990
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} History of the Brady Campaign on their website ( memento of the original from November 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) 
8. ↑ Eugene Register-Guard "Dallas Recalls Hinckley" , March 31, 1981 (English)
9. ^ Reuters, "After 30 years, Jim Brady continues to push for gun control," March 30, 2011.
10. ↑ Spiegel online: Giffords starts campaign against US gun lobby , January 8, 2013
11. ↑ The 2013 TIME 100, entry on Giffords (English)
12. ↑ National Journal, "Is Gabby Giffords the New Jim Brady?" ( Memento of the original from December 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , January 8, 2013 
13. ↑ Medical examiner rules James Brady's death a homicide. Washington Post, accessed January 20, 2017 . 
14. ↑ List of the Jefferson Awards winners ( memento of the original from November 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.