Late Reagan spokesman Brady honored at service
WASHINGTON — More than three decades after an assassin’s bullet nearly ended his life, former White House press secretary James Brady was remembered Friday as a champion for gun safety who challenged his adversaries with grace, humor and unyielding determination. Vice President Joe Biden praised him as a rare example of turning tragedy into action.
Fellow press secretaries and veteran journalists joined Biden at the Newseum a few blocks from the White House for the memorial honoring President Ronald Reagan’s one-time spokesman, who died in August at 73. Partially paralyzed after the 1981 attempt on Reagan’s life, Brady became a prominent advocate for stricter gun laws.
“The bullet that the assassin left him robbed him of so many of his faculties,” Biden said. “But it didn’t rob him of his voice.”
Mike McCurry, who served as press secretary to then-President Bill Clinton, took the podium to read a letter from Clinton crediting Brady with teaching him “the true meaning of perseverance.”
Shot in the head outside the Washington Hilton Hotel on March 30, 1981, Brady never regained full health. The bullet caused brain damage, partial paralysis, short-term memory impairment, slurred speech and constant pain.
The White House briefing room, where Brady once tussled with reporters, is now named in his honor. So is a federal law requiring background checks for handgun buyers.
Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, called Brady and his wife, Sarah, “the greatest champions that we have ever seen for the safer nation that we all want.”
As a gun control advocate, Biden said, Brady was effective because he never questioned people’s motives, but only their judgment — leaving opponents plenty of room to come around. “Jim never compromised. Jim was never, ever, ever defeated,” Biden said.
