James Brady died at the age of 73.

A fierce advocate for gun control, he became famous as a victim of gun violence.

He was President Ronald Reagan's White House Press Secretary, when he was caught by a bullet in the assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981.

It was two months into Reagan's presidency, when John Hinckley Jr. shot at Reagan outside a Washington hotel. He wounded the president, Brady, a Secret Service member and a Washington police officer.

Reagan and his guards made a full recovery.

But Brady - nicknamed "the Bear" - was critically wounded when the bullet hit him in the head.

He would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, partially paralyzed with brain damage and slurred speech.

But James Brady went on to become one of the country's leading crusaders for tougher gun control laws in the U.S.

And in 1993, his efforts paid off with the passage of the so-called Brady Bill.

It required a mandatory five-day waiting per