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Hinckley has been released from court supervision

There’s little doubt the release of would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley Jr. has more than a few people of a certain age squirming in their seats.

And for good reason.

Hinckley, in 1981, did his best to murder a sitting U.S. president — Ronald Reagan — spraying bullets around outside a Washington, D.C. hotel where Reagan had spoke, hitting and maiming several others.

Found not guilty by reason of insanity, he’s been cooling his heels all this time in one hospital or another until 2016, when he was allowed to live with his mother.

“After 41 years 2 months and 15 days, FREEDOM AT LAST!!!,” he wrote on Twitter earlier this week.

According to Associated Press coverage of all of this, Hinckley was 25 and suffering from acute psychosis when he shot Reagan and the others. When jurors made their decision, they said he needed treatment and not a lifetime in confinement. He was ordered to live at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington.

In the 2000s, Hinckley began making visits to his parents’ home in a gated Williamsburg community, said AP. A 2016 court order granted him permission to live with his mom full time, albeit under various restrictions, after experts said his mental illness had been in remission for decades, AP reported.

The federal judge overseeing Hinckley’s case said on June 1 that Hinckley has shown no signs of active mental illness since the mid-1980s and has exhibited no violent behavior or interest in weapons, noted AP.

We hope they are right. The consequences of them being wrong are severe.

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