Excerpt: On this day in 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest at the side entrance of the Washington Hilton on Connecticut Avenue by John Hinckley Jr. Reagan was walking to his limousine after a speech to AFL-CIO leaders when Hinckley, 25, who was standing among a group of reporters, fired six shots, hitting Reagan and three others.
This photo stands out as long ago helping me to realize nobody is in charge. All the adults, even at the highest levels of our government, are just regular people getting through it as best they can.
Their look of panic and defensive posture, all the intelligence and protection the free world can muster reduced to two agents with an Uzi and a revolver, pointing them at nothing, amidst total chaos.