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Parr had decided to travel to the Hilton hotel that day in March 1981 so that he could build a better bond with Reagan. In that he succeeded, but the shooting also changed him. After leaving the Secret Service, Parr came to believe that God had directed his life so that he could one day save the president’s. He ultimately obtained a master’s degree in pastoral counseling and became the copastor of the Festival Church, a member of a network of ecumenical churches in Washington.

Now eighty, Parr doesn’t want anyone to forget what happened—not because he considers himself a hero, but because he worries that security agents and officers may become complacent again. In March 2010, he visited the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia, to speak to two dozen young agents with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service who are often assigned to protect dignitaries and high-ranking navy officials all over the world. Parr was no longer the husky fifty-year-old agent who protected the president on that day in 1981. His hair and eyebrows were gray and bushy, and his once-confident strut had been replaced by a shuffle. But the young investigators—many of whom had not been born when the assassination attempt occurred—listened in rapt attention as Parr described how he pushed Reagan into the armored limousine and moments later decided to drive to the hospital instead of the White House. The president ultimately survived, Parr said, thanks to “human flesh, training, technology, and courage.”

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IN THE DAYS following the assassination attempt, several congressional panels promised investigations into the shooting, but none ever took place. The Treasury Department issued its own report on the attempt in August 1981. While it lauded the efforts of Jerry Parr and Tim McCarthy, it noted that there were often conflicts between the White House and the Secret Service over security arrangements. It urged the service and the White House to determine “the balance that is to be struck among the security, scheduling and public exposure requirements of the president.” The report also noted the dramatic and dangerous difference between the elaborate security precautions taken to screen those attending the president’s speech and the lax security provided outside the hotel, where “members of the general public, without any Secret Service pre-screening whatever, could walk to a rope barricade and stand within 15 feet of the president.”

The Secret Service tried to deflect blame for the shooting onto the FBI by saying that the bureau never told them about Hinckley’s arrest in Nashville. In an internal report, the service offered an unpersuasive defense of its procedures that day. Among other dubious points, it took credit for locating the president’s limousine so that it could “effect instantaneous evacuation following the shooting.” Nowhere does this report—or any public statement by the Secret Service—admit that the service made a colossal mistake by allowing a crowd of unscreened spectators to stand so close to the president’s path to the limousine.

After the shooting the Secret Service did change a number of procedures for the better. It required that everyone entering a presidential event pass through a metal detector. It installed magnetometers at the White House (and discovered that a surprising number of guns were being toted in the purses of elderly ladies taking the official tour). And since March 30, 1981, presidents have rarely, if ever, walked in public without elaborate security arrangements. The revised procedures—which are regularly reviewed—have significantly increased the president’s safety. Still, no security perimeter is impenetrable, as demonstrated by the two socialites who in 2009 sneaked through the White House gates, attended a state dinner, and shook President Barack Obama’s hand.

Over the years, the Secret Service has steadily grown. In 2010, it had 3,500 agents—double the number in Jerry Parr’s day—and its budget was nearly $1.5 billion. Training has become ever more