WASHINGTON (AP) — More than three decades after an assassin’s bullet nearly ended his life, former White House press secretary James Brady was remembered Friday as a champion for gun safety who challenged his adversaries with grace, humor and unyielding determination. Vice President Joe Biden praised him as a rare example of turning tragedy into action.

Fellow press secretaries and veteran journalists joined Biden at the Newseum a few blocks from the White House for the memorial honoring President Ronald Reagan’s one-time spokesman, who died in August at 73. Partially paralyzed and mostly confined to a wheelchair after the 1981 attempt on Reagan’s life, Brady became a prominent advocate for stricter gun laws.