华盛顿-这位行刺未遂者在1.7秒内开了6枪，几乎夺去了一位总统的生命，并改变了总统任期的轨迹。
这件事发生在1981年3月一个阴沉的下午。罗纳德·里根总统在向一个工会团体发表演讲后正要离开华盛顿希尔顿酒店，这时小约翰·w·欣克利用他的点22口径左轮手枪开火了。
枪声一响，特勤局特工蜂拥而至，其中一人将总统推进了等候的豪华轿车——但其中一颗子弹击中了里根的要害，击中了他的侧腹。
接下来几个小时发生的事情成了总统和政治传奇。这位70岁的总统的生命被他的主要特工人员的快速行动以及乔治华盛顿大学医院医务人员的技能所挽救。里根在那些紧张时刻的勇气进一步巩固了他与美国公众的关系和政治地位，并改变了他在接下来的八年中处理工作的方式。
从表面上看，1981年和周六在宾夕法尼亚州巴特勒发生了什么一名枪手向前总统唐纳德·特朗普开枪，令人震惊。一名枪手在特朗普向集会人群发表讲话时开了几枪，特朗普的右耳被击中。特朗普躲在讲台后面，特工们堆在他身上充当人体盾牌。在肯定会发生的事情中一个标志性的时刻，当特工将这位假定的共和党总统候选人带离舞台时，浑身是血的特朗普向人群举起了挑衅的拳头。
他在一份声明中说:“我立即意识到出事了，因为我听到了嗖嗖的声音和枪声，并立即感觉到子弹穿透了皮肤。”
特朗普的竞选团队表示，他在一家地区医疗机构接受检查后，情况“良好”。当局正在调查巴特勒发生的事情。
正如公众在里根遇刺后的几个小时里了解到的那样，早期的报道可能是错误的。直到很久以后，公众才意识到那天里根离死亡有多近——他的生命悬在一瞬间的决定和一英寸的天平上。
3月30日，里根在一次工会演讲后离开华盛顿希尔顿酒店，在下午2点27分走向等候他的豪华轿车时，他的第一个任期刚刚过去70天。欣克利简直不敢相信自己的运气。25岁的欣克利陷入困境，他曾希望杀死总统来打动女演员朱迪·福斯特。他现在不知怎么地发现自己站在一群观众和记者中的绳索后面——所有人都没有经过特勤局的检查——离总统只有15英尺。
他拔出左轮手枪开火了。
他的第一颗子弹击中了白宫新闻秘书詹姆斯·布雷迪的头部，第二颗子弹击中了华盛顿警察托马斯·德拉汉蒂的背部。
听到枪声，特勤局特工杰里·帕尔抓住里根，把他推向装甲豪华轿车敞开的门。欣克利的第三颗子弹飞得很高。第四颗子弹击中了站在总统和枪手之间的特勤局特工蒂姆·麦卡锡的胸部。
第五发子弹击中了豪华轿车的装甲窗户。欣克利的最后一颗子弹从轿车侧面反弹回来，变成一枚一角硬币的形状，击中了里根左腋下5英寸处。帕尔跳进总统身后，门砰的一声关上了。帕尔命令豪华轿车开往白宫。
帕尔不知道里根被枪杀了。但是当总统抱怨胸部疼痛，帕尔注意到他嘴唇上有泡沫状的血时，这位代理人命令豪华轿车开往乔治华盛顿大学医院。在那里，里根坚持依靠自己的力量走进医院，但却像一个重物一样瘫倒在走廊上。
医生和护士找到了他的伤口。然而，他们无法止住里根的出血，迫使外科医生进行手术止血。那天，在出血得到控制之前，里根已经失血过半。外科医生取出了嵌在离总统心脏仅一英寸处的子弹。
正如我在书中所说的，生牛皮下来:罗纳德·里根差点被暗杀，枪击事件引起了美国公众对里根的极大同情，里根在返回白宫之前在医院住了13天。但它还做了其他事情——它在总统和公众之间建立了纽带。他们看到了一位优雅而勇敢的总统。他们会听到，在医生和护士努力挽救他的生命，试图缓解亲人的焦虑时，他曾和他们开过玩笑。
躺在创伤室的轮床上，一根胸管从他身体一侧抽血，里根用一句俏皮话试图让他的妻子南希平静下来。
“亲爱的，我忘记闪开了，”他对她说，借用了1926年拳击手杰克·邓普西在失去重量级冠军后对自己妻子说的一句话。
当他被推进手术室时，他和顾问们开玩笑。就在他接受手术之前，他对他的外科医生说:“我希望你们都是共和党人。”
自由民主党人约瑟夫·佐丹奴博士回答说:“今天，总统先生，我们都是共和党人。”
白宫几乎没有浪费时间来确保这些台词被传达给媒体。正如《华盛顿邮报》政治记者大卫·布罗德所说，会在两天后写信:“周一发生在里根身上的事情是创造传奇的素材。”
三十年后，布罗德坚持这一评估。“从那以后，他在政治上是不可触及的，”布罗德在一次采访中说。"他成了一个神话人物。"
Reagan survived assassination attempt, his response changed trajectory of presidency
WASHINGTON --The would-be assassin got off six shots in 1.7 seconds, nearly taking the life of a president and changing the trajectory of a presidency.
It happened on a dreary March afternoon in 1981. President Ronald Reagan was leaving the Washington Hilton hotel after giving a speech to a union group when John W. Hinckley Jr. opened fire from his .22-caliber revolver.
At the sound of the gunshots, Secret Service agents swarmed, and one of them shoved the president into the waiting limousine -- but not before one of the bullets struck home, hitting Reagan in his side.
What transpired over the next few hours became the stuff of presidential and political legend. The life of the 70-year-old president was saved by the quick actions of his lead Secret Service agent, as well as the skill of medical personnel at George Washington University Hospital. Reagan’s courage over those tense hours further cemented his relationship -- and political standing -- with the American public and changed the way he approached the job over the next eight years.
On the surface the parallels between 1981 andwhat happened Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman fired shots at former President Donald Trump, are striking. A gunman got off several shots as Trump was addressing a rally crowd, and Trump was struck in the right ear. Trump ducked behind a lectern as agents piled on top of him as human shields. In what is sure to bean iconic moment,a bloodied Trump raised a defiant fist to the crowd as agents whisked the presumptive Republican presidential candidate off the stage.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he said in a statement.
Trump’s campaign said he was doing “fine” after being checked out at an area medical facility. Authorities are working to figure out what happened in Butler.
As the public learned in the hours after the Reagan assassination attempt, early reports can be wrong. Only much later did the public realize how close Reagan came to dying that day -- his life had hung in the balance of a split-second decision and an inch.
It was just 70 days into Reagan’s first term when he left the Washington Hilton on March 30 after a speech to a trade union and approached his waiting limousine at 2:27 p.m. Hinckley couldn't believe his luck. A troubled 25-year-old, Hinckley had been hoping to kill the president to impress actress Jodie Foster. He had now somehow found himself standing behind a rope line in a crowd of spectators and journalists — all unscreened by the Secret Service — just 15 feet from the president.
He pulled out his revolver and opened fire.
His first bullet struck White House Press Secretary James Brady in the head, and his second hit D.C. Police Officer Thomas Delahanty in the back.
At the sound of the shots, Secret Service Agent Jerry Parr grabbed Reagan and shoved him toward the open door of the armored limousine. Hinckley’s third bullet flew high. The fourth hit Secret Service Agent Tim McCarthy in the chest as he stood between the president and the gunman.
The fifth shot hit the armored window of the limousine. Hinckley's final bullet ricocheted off the side of the limousine, flattening into the shape of a dime and striking Reagan five inches below his left armpit. Parr dove in behind the president, and the door slammed shut. Parr ordered the limousine to head to the White House.
Parr didn’t know Reagan had been shot. But when the president complained of pain in his chest and Parr noticed frothy blood on his lips, the agent ordered the limousine to head to George Washington University hospital. There, Reagan insisted on walking into the hospital under his own power but collapsed like a dead weight in the hallway.
Doctors and nurses located his wounds. They could not stem Reagan's bleeding, however, forcing surgeons to operate to staunch it. Reagan lost more than half his blood volume that day before the bleeding was brought under control. Surgeons removed the bullet lodged just an inch from the president’s heart.
As laid out in my book,Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan,the shooting generated massive sympathy from the American public for Reagan, who spent 13 days in the hospital before returning to the White House. But it did something else -- it built a bond between the president and the public. They had seen a president who acted with grace and courage. They would hear that he had cracked jokes with his doctors and nurses as they fought to save his life and sought to ease the anxiety of loved ones.
Lying on a gurney in the trauma bay, a chest tube draining blood from his side, Reagan sought to calm down his wife, Nancy, with a quip.
“Honey, I forgot to duck,” he told her, borrowing a line that boxer Jack Dempsey delivered to his own wife after losing the 1926 heavyweight championship.
He joked with advisers as he was being wheeled into the operating room. And just before he was put under for surgery, he cracked to his surgeons: “I hope you are all Republicans.”
Dr. Joseph Giordano, a liberal Democrat, replied: “Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans.”
The White House wasted little time in ensuring those lines were delivered to the press. As David Broder, a Washington Post political journalist,would write two days later: “What happened to Reagan on Monday is the stuff of which legends are made.”
Three decades later, Broder stood by that assessment. “He was politically untouchable from that point on,” Broder said in an interview. “He became a mythic figure.”
