A music venue in Brooklyn canceled a sold-out show featuring John Hinckley Jr., who was released from court oversight earlier in the day, more than 40 years after attempting to assassinate former President Ronald Reagan, The Hill reports. “After a lot of serious consideration, we are cancelling the scheduled event at Market Hotel with John Hinckley,” the venue announced in a social media post on Wednesday. The post said there once was a time and place where hosting a concert like Hinckley's would just have the reaction of "it's just a guy playing a show, who does it hurt - it's a free country," but we aren't living in that kind of free country any more. The decision to cancel the show came "after being presented with and reflecting on some very real and worsening threats and hate facing our vulnerable communities."
The venue said Hinckley's tour "sends a message that mental health issues and a criminal past can be recovered from and atoned for, after serving one's debt to society and getting real treatment." It noted that the outrage and concern surrounding the Hinckley's appearance was entirely about the message it sends. It went on to say that the cancellation of the concert "will not deter future assassins and will have no effect on mass shooting, and it certainly won't affect the awfulness of what Hinckley did 40 years ago."