Brady, Sarah

In March 1981, White House press secretary James S. Brady was seriously injured in the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. In the wake of her husband's injury, Sarah Brady became a leading advocate of gun control in the United States and a fierce opponent of the powerful National Rifle Association. In 1985, she joined Handgun Control, Inc., the largest gun control lobbying organization in the United States. Four years later, she became chair of the group, lobbying members of Congress and campaigning actively for political candidates who supported gun control legislation, regardless of their political affiliation. In 1991, Brady took on the additional role of chair of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, an organization committed to reducing gun violence [Page 183]through education, research, and legal advocacy. Her years of activism culminated in President Bill Clinton's signing into law the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which required a five-day waiting period and background check upon the purchase of a handgun. In her determination to see more sweeping changes to the way guns are bought and sold in the United States, Sarah Brady has continued her advocacy. Not even a bout with lung cancer and semi-retirement have weakened her commitment to the cause of gun control.

Born Sarah Jane Kemp on February 6, 1942, in Missouri, Brady grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, the daughter of a homemaker and an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. After her graduation from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1964, Sarah taught school for four years but then left the classroom to work as an assistant to the campaign director of the National Republican Congressional Committee. While she was employed by the committee, she met James Brady, whom she married in 1973. Sarah Brady served as a congressional aide before accepting a position as director of administration and coordinator of field services for the Republican National Committee. By the time her husband was named Ronald Reagan's White House press secretary, Sarah Brady had resigned from her work with the Republican National Committee to care for the couple's only son, James Scott Brady Jr., who was born in 1979.