John Hinckley was released from court supervision decades later

John Hinckley Jr., who toppled and wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was released from court oversight on Wednesday, officially ending a decade of oversight by mental health and legal professionals.

“After 2 months and 15 days at 41 years old, finally freedom!!!” he wrote on Twitter after 12pm.

All restrictions have been lifted since late September. US District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman said in Washington he will release Hinckley on June 15 if he remains mentally stable in the Virginia community, where he has lived since 2016.

Hinckley, who was acquitted of insanity, spent decades in a Washington psychiatric hospital.

Hinckley’s restrictions have gradually been eased over the years, including the removal of restrictions on social media use. Hinckley’s social media following has grown to nearly 30,000 on Twitter and YouTube in recent months.

Hinckley Freedom includes a show – he plays guitar and sings – in Brooklyn, New York, scheduled for July.

But Gray, 67, is far from the famous name he gained after shooting and wounding the 40th president of the United States and several others outside a Washington hotel. Today, historians say Hinckley is, at best, a test question and someone who inadvertently helped create the Reagan legend and inspired him to take tight control of the gun.

“If Hinckley had managed to kill Reagan, he would have been a defining historical figure,” HW Brands, historian and Reagan biographer, wrote in a letter to the Associated Press. “As it is, it is a false spirit that history has forgotten.”

Barbara Perry, professor and director of presidential research at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, said Hinckley “can be a dangerous question.”

But his influence remains tangible in Reagan’s legacy.

“How the president himself was seriously injured and came back after that, that made Ronald Reagan a legend who became … the movie hero that he was,” Perry said.

Friedman, a federal judge overseeing Hinckley’s case, said June 1 that Hinckley had not shown signs of active mental illness since the mid-1980s and had not shown violent behavior or interest in firearms.

“I am confident that Mr. Hinckley will do well in his remaining years,” the judge said at a hearing earlier this month.

He noted that government attorneys and Hinckley have been fighting for years over Hinckley’s release.

“It took us a long time to get here,” he said, adding that now is the unanimous agreement: “This is the time for John Hinckley to move on with his life, so we will.”