John Hinckley Jr., who shot former President Ronald Reagan in 1981, claims that he has been a victim of "cancel culture" because his concerts keep getting canceled.
Hinckley, now 68, had been stalking Jodie Foster at the time of the assassination attempt and wrote a letter to the actress claiming that the shooting was meant to "impress" her.
Along with Reagan, his press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and police officer Thomas Delahanty were also injured in the shooting.
Brady had brain damage from the attack, which was ruled to be the cause of his eventual death in 2014.
After being found not guilty because of insanity, Hinckley spent the next 30 years in a mental hospital. He was released, under supervision, in 2016.
In 2022, he was granted permission to tour the United States and perform his folk music.
However, his concerts have been repeatedly canceled after facing pressure from protesters.
The latest cancellation is from the Hotel Huxley in Naugatuck, Connecticut, where he was supposed to perform on March 30 — the 43rd anniversary of his attack on Reagan.
The venue told Hinckley that the event is "postponed indefinitely."
“I think that’s fair to say: I’m a victim of cancel culture,” Hinckley told the New York Post. “It keeps happening over and over again.”
Hinckley said that about a dozen of his performances have been canceled because “owners don’t want the controversy.”
“They book me and then the show gets announced and then the venue starts getting backlash,” Hinckley explained. “The owners always cave, they cancel. It’s happened so many times, it’s kinda what I expect.”
“I don’t really get upset.”
The Post reports, "Hinckley’s sold-out debut show in Brooklyn in July 2022 — scheduled less than a month after he was fully released from court supervision — was nixed for safety concerns after the Market Hotel received backlash."
“It is not worth a gamble on the safety of our vulnerable communities to give a guy a microphone and a paycheck from his art who hasn’t had to earn it, who we don’t care about on an artistic level,” the Market Hotel wrote in their cancellation announcement at the time.
