On March 30, 1981, an assassination attempt was made on President Ronald Reagan. Cameras were rolling during the shooting and the press immediately began to report, yet much of the information was inaccurate. After reviewing the assigned sources, please answer the following questions:
How was the reporting inaccurate and why? How did the American people respond to the assassination attempt? What can we learn from both the press coverage and the American response? Consider Guiteau’s assassination of James Garfield, which you learned about earlier in the class. How has our treatment of mental illness progressed?