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DN Editorial: The long goodbye

It surprised a lot of people last week when the coroner in Northern Virginia ruled Jim Brady's death a homicide.

James Brady , White House press secretary, was left paralyzed in the March 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan. AP, File
James Brady , White House press secretary, was left paralyzed in the March 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan. AP, FileRead more

IT SURPRISED a lot of people last week when the coroner in Northern Virginia ruled Jim Brady's death a homicide.

After all, it had been 33 years since Mr. Brady was shot in the head by John Hinckley, in the same 1981 incident that wounded President Reagan, a Secret Service agent and a Washington, D.C., policeman.

Hinckley did a lot of damage with the six bullets he fired using a .22-caliber handgun he'd bought for $29 at a pawnshop using a false ID, but he was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982 and has been a patient at a mental institution since the trial, although he is allowed out to visit his mother once in a while.

Mr. Brady went on to live the rest of his life physically impaired, but politically active. From his wheelchair, he led a national movement that - after years of hard lobbying - resulted in the so-called Brady Law, which required background checks and waiting periods for handgun purchasers.

Despite the coroner's ruling, most prosecutors doubt that Hinckley will be tried for Mr. Brady's murder. Too much time has elapsed, they say, to prove direct causation in a court of law.

From a legal standpoint they may be correct. From a human standpoint, there is a direct line between the bullets shot from this mentally ill man's cheap handgun and Mr. Brady's death. One caused the other.

Even if Mr. Brady went on to live an exemplary life dedicated to a good cause, he lived the life of a shooting victim, with daily reminders of the aftereffects of Hinckley's mad act. He lost use of his left arm and leg. He was usually confined to a wheelchair. He had short-term memory loss. As Mr. Brady himself pointed out, he couldn't even go to the bathroom without help.

"What I was, I am not now," Brady said in 1994. "What I was, I never will be again."

Those 15 words are true not just for Mr. Brady, but for the thousands and thousands of people like him: victims of gun violence, struggling to live a life that will never be the same.

In Philadelphia and elsewhere, we give the most attention to the victims of homicide, mourning their deaths and sermonizing about their lives.

We pay less attention to shooting victims who survive. There is not the finality of a funeral for them. They live on - often in pain and misery - for years, even decades.

Even if the wounds are minor, the scars are deep. The trauma lasts.

Last year in Philadelphia, 247 men, women and children were victims of homicide. That's a distressing number that nonetheless carries hopeful news: homicide is in the decline here and elsewhere. In contrast, there were 324 homicide victims in 2011.

In 2013, the number of those wounded by guns numbered 1,128 - nearly five times the number of homicides. Nearly half of these shooting victims were under the age of 25. Two were under the age of 10.

Like Mr. Brady, many will face a lifetime struggling with physical and mental maladies. Unlike Mr. Brady, many do not have the financial or personal resources to help them move forward. The poorest and most seriously injured end up as wards of the state, living in nursing homes as shells of their former selves.

When they die, it's likely no one will be prosecuted for their deaths. Justice has passed them by, even though, like Jim Brady, they were victims of murder - murder done in slow motion.