the day that john hinckley shot president reagan and his press secretary, jim brady as they were leaving the washington hilton. this doctor treated brady. >> his entrance wound was right through his left eyebrow. there was a little gauze over it. i took that piece of gauze off and brain came out like if you squeezed toothpaste. i put the gauze back on i thought, this is noted good. i didn't think he had much of a chance to survive. >> reporter: the bullet that struck brady above his left eye has scattered in the right side of his head. his juries were far worse than congresswoman giffords. >> the congresswoman's bullet only affected one hemser if. jim's affected both. that's a far worse injury to affect both hemispheres. >> reporter: and just a couple of weeks later -- >> he woke up which surprised all of us. there are people who do better than anyone would expect from such an event. so, it's hard to predict. you just kind of have to see where it goes. >> reporter: nine months of complicated rehab followed. he stayed paralyzed on one side and still speaks with a slur. but he pulled throu

an exception is john hinckley who tried to kill president reagan and was found not guilty by reason of insanity. confined indefinitely to a mental institution, hinckley now has freedom to leave the facility for unsupervised visits with his family. now, if loughner is convicted of the crimes, the insanity defense could still help him avoid the death penalty as it did for those other clients of judy clarke. katie? >> couric: of course we'll all be watching. jan crawford. jan, thank you. so was the suspect's violent behavior somehow stoked by today's political climate? most americans say no. a cbs news poll out tonight shows 57% say that had nothing to do with the arizona shootings. just the same, nearly half say the discourse has become less civil than it was ten years ago. i spoke with former minnesota governor tim pawlenty, a potential republican presidential contender, about the role political figures play in all this. >> there's a term for that in politics. they say go out and give them the red meat. and so it's... think of that imagery of dangling raw meat in front of the predator.

( gunshots ) >> couric: 12 years after john hinckley tried to kill president reagan, the brady bill becamein 1993 and added a national database for criminal background checks. >> there are federal gun laws that say you can't sell guns to minors, you can't sell guns to deranged people, you can't sell guns to drug dealers, you can't sell guns to criminals. there is also a requirement that a background check is done before you sell a gun. the trouble is, there's no money to enforce it and there are loopholes. >> couric: so you think the laws that currently exist are enough or do new laws need to be passed? >> you can always have more laws but if you don't enforce the ones on the books, there's no reason to go and have an additional law so that everybody feels good, everybody beats their chest and says "see, i did something." we had somebody at fort hood who killed a bunch of people. the f.b.i. knew he was a problem didn't tell the army. in tucson, the army turned down this alleged shooter because he was a drug user, but they didn't tell the f.b.i. so they could have done something about it. >

. >> that was march 1981 the day that gunmen john hinckley shot president regan and his president secretaryim brady as they were leaving the washington hilton. the doctor treated brady. >> his entrance wound was right through the left eyebrow. there was a little gauze over it. i took that piece of gauze off and brain came out like if you squeeze tooth pest and intentively put the gauze back on and thought this was not good. i didn't think he had much of a chance to survive. >> the bullet that had struck brady above his left eye scattered in the right-side of his head. his injuries were far worse than congresswoman giffords. >> the bullet only affected one hemisphere. jim's affected both hemispheres. >> and just a couple of weeks later. >> he woke up which surprised all of us. there are people who do better than any one would expect from such an event. it is hard to predict. you just have to kind of see where it goes. >> reporter: nine months of complicated rehabilitation followed. he stayed paralyzed on one side and still speaks with a slur. but he pulled through. >> are those scissors? >>

episodes going back in recent time to the virginia tech massacre to the unabomber ted kaczynski to john hinckley, to david berkowitz, son of sam, colin ferguson who prompted carolyn mccarthy to run for congress. >> rose: on the long island railroad. >> that's right. so all of these were mentally ill people who committed these tragic events. now, it happens with such regularity-- albeit not everyday but maybe every month, every year-- that one can almost calculate the frequency with an actuarial table. and we have, given the fact that three things exist in our society, one is a lack of general awareness within the population about mental disorders, two, the inadequacy of mental health care services in general and, three, the availability of firearms we have basically an array of what i would call ticking time bombs. >> rose: but what causes the bomb to go off. what causes what... is the red line that people cross so that they go get a gun and shoot somebody? >> well, these are events that nobody can predict when they'll occur. but you can predict in whom they're most likely to be perm traited by.

guest: and another one, john hinckley. the what did he have against ronald reagan? nothing. this is what happens when you are crazy. you do crazy things, if this man is crazy. we do not know because it has not been determined yet, but we do not know if he was crazy or if he was evil. and that is a conversation, i think, that needs to be this -- to be explored. i think the media would do a much better service to the american people to explore what degree he was dabbling in the occult. because to the degree he that he was an to the degree that there is a connection, that, to me, is far, far more frightening than any silly discussion about politics or liberals or conservatives or democrats or republicans. that is far more serious than this, but nobody is covering that. it might just be that this man is simply a walk job -- whack job, but if that is the case, that we should have a conversation about that. one of the terrible consequences of this is that from now on, every member of congress is going to need to have to have security, or they will believe they do. this country is

guest: and another one, john hinckley. the what did he have against ronald reagan? nothing. this is what happens when you are crazy. you do crazy things, if this man is crazy. we do not know because it has not been determined yet, but we do not know if he was crazy or if he was evil. and that is a conversation, i think, that needs to be this -- to be explored. i think the media would do a much better service to the american people to explore what degree he was dabbling in the occult. because to the degree he that he was an to the degree that there is a connection, that, to me, is far, far more frightening than any silly discussion about politics or liberals or conservatives or democrats or republicans. that is far more serious than this, but nobody is covering that. it might just be that this man is simply a walk job -- whack job, but if that is the case, that we should have a conversation about that. one of the terrible consequences of this is that from now on, every member of congress is going to need to have to have security, or they will believe they do. this country is

guest: and another one, john hinckley. the what did he have against ronald reagan? nothing. this is what happens when you are crazy. you do crazy things, if this man is crazy. we do not know because it has not been determined yet, but we do not know if he was crazy or if he was evil. and that is a conversation, i think, that needs to be this -- to be explored. i think the media would do a much better service to the american people to explore what degree he was dabbling in the occult. because to the degree he that he was an to the degree that there is a connection, that, to me, is far, far more frightening than any silly discussion about politics or liberals or conservatives or democrats or republicans. that is far more serious than this, but nobody is covering that. it might just be that this man is simply a walk job -- whack job, but if that is the case, that we should have a conversation about that. one of the terrible consequences of this is that from now on, every member of congress is going to need to have to have security, or they will believe they do. this country is

and i think this person -- nobody mentioned that ronald reagan was shot by john hinckley, jr., the mentally ill guy that wanted to impress a jodie foster? who knows why this guy did it? he is obviously in saying. i think people are overreacting. i am an independent. i voted for democrats and republicans. host: again, the headline. rep the deferreds shot. in critical condition. -- representative giffords shot. the 9-year-old was at the safeway. she was among those killed, along with judge roll who has testified in the past before the senate judiciary committee. his testimony is available at c- span.org. caller: steve, listen, i am making an email to mr. lamb. your salary should be doubled. how you do not break into hysterical scales of laughter -- gales of laughter is unbelievable. host: why would we be laughing today? caller: not in a funny way. we call this in the cattle business, and breeding. some of the modern listened to rule we have listened to. -- some of the mindless drool we of listen to. how you can sit there and listened witho. the suspect, the accused of of the have this kid dea

guest: and another one, john hinckley. the what did he have against ronald reagan? nothing. this is what happens when you are crazy. you do crazy things, if this man is crazy. we do not know because it has not been determined yet, but we do not know if he was crazy or if he was evil. and that is a conversation, i think, that needs to be this -- to be explored. i think the media would do a much better service to the american people to explore what degree he was dabbling in the occult. because to the degree he that he was an to the degree that there is a connection, that, to me, is far, far more frightening than any silly discussion about politics or liberals or conservatives or democrats or republicans. that is far more serious than this, but nobody is covering that. it might just be that this man is simply a walk job -- whack job, but if that is the case, that we should have a conversation about that. one of the terrible consequences of this is that from now on, every member of congress is going to need to have to have security, or they will believe they do. this country is