Marion Hammer

American gun activist

Marion P. Hammer (born April 26, 1939) is an American gun advocate and lobbyist who was the first female president of the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), from 1995 to 1998. Hammer has been an influential NRA lobbyist since the 1970s, and is credited with influencing many of Florida's gun laws, including the 2005 Stand your ground law. Florida's laws have led to the enactment of similar laws across the United States. She developed an NRA program for children, Eddie Eagle GunSafe, in 1988. NRA promotes this program as an alternative to Child access prevention law (CAP) or safe storage laws. In 2005, she was inducted into Florida Women's Hall of Fame. Hammer is currently very active in lobbying the NRA positions and helping to write pro gun legislation with the Florida State Legislature, including participation in Senate and House committee meetings following the mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February 2018. Following the mass shooting, Hammer became the target of harassment for her lobbying activities.

Hammer grew up on a farm owned by her grandparents near Columbia, South Carolina. They were relatively poor and engaged in subsistence hunting. She learned to shoot "squirrels and rabbits for dinner" with a .22 bolt action single shot rifle. She married a man who also loved hunting and they entered shooting competitions together as part of "family recreational activities" which later included their children. since 1976. During his tenure, President George H. W. Bush, a pro gun candidate and NRA life member, who had the NRA endorsement, resigned from the NRA after receiving an April 13, 1995 fundraising letter by NRA vice president Wayne LaPierre calling the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ARTs) "jack booted government thugs". Following Washington's death, Hammer, "who was in line to succeed him, took over", becoming the "first female president in the 125 year history of the National Rifle Association." In 1996, with Hammer as president, NRA membership was at a record high with Republicans in power both in congress and in many state legislatures.

Hammer founded and runs pro gun organisation Unified Sportsmen of Florida (USF), the NRA's affiliate in Florida, in the 1970s, following her move to Florida.

In an article in Newsweek, Hammer, who was described as a "78 year old lobbyist who is "under five feet tall", carries a "handgun in her purse" and is the "most powerful [lobbyist] in her industry when it comes to pro gun legislation". Hammer has been credited with being the force behind most gun laws in Florida for more than three decades,

She "lobbied for and eventually pushed through" a 1987 Florida law that allows Floridians who "have no criminal records or mental illness" to carry concealed weapons with concealed carry (CCW) permits. According to the Tampa Bay Times, on June 8, 2018, Hammer said, "What we did is we helped write the bill and then amended it onto somebody else's bill It was just me. Just NRA. Just gun owners wanting to be sure the program was protected." In 2018, the Tampa Bay Times revealed that between 2014 and 2018, with Putman as Agriculture Commissioner, 298 emails were exchanged between Hammer and employees of the Department of Agriculture. With Putman as Commissioner, Florida became the first and only state in the United States to grant over two million CCW permits. The hundreds of emails from Hammer to the Department of Agriculture, made available online by the Tampa Bay Times, include complaints about denied CCW license renewals, spam phone calls and email, South Korean dogs, and a specific pest control company that she claimed damaged a house she owned. They reveal that Hammer's "sphere of influence" was much wider than just gun legislation. Hammer was "one of the chief architects" of the Stand your ground law that was signed into law by Governor Jeb Bush in 2005. It was the first to be passed in the United States. It was based on the Castle Doctrine. The controversy surrounding the trial George Zimmerman, who fatally shot 17 year old Trayvon Martin, "focused attention once again on Florida's gun laws, and on Hammer's role in getting them passed." by the end of the May 7th, 2011, when the Florida legislature adjourned. House Bill 155 would allow gun owners to carry guns into doctor's offices and examining rooms. The third, House Bill 45, which was co sponsored by state Representative Matt Gaetz (R 4) and which Hammer, "worked to enact", "punishes local officials who attempt to establish gun regulations stricter than those imposed at the state level. Officials can be fined thousands of dollars and removed from office." N. R. A. papers show that it was "deeply involved in advocating" for House Bill 45. Hammer's efficacy as lobbyist in Florida for her Second Amendment agenda, has led to Florida being dubbed the "Gunshine State" — not just the "Sunshine State". Since the 1987 law that gave the state of Florida "exclusive right to regulate firearms", local governments imposed their own additional regulations. Hammer described these "local gun haters" as flouting the 1987 law. As NRA lobbyist, Hammer was cited as saying, "The Constitution [Second Amendment] protects the right to keep and bear arms. Local governments are not allowed to regulate the Bill of Rights." She criticized the February 26, 2014 actions of the Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum who subsequently was sued by Florida Carry and the Second Amendment Foundation. She said Mayor Andrew Gillum's attack on NRA was "unwise"; he was just "stomping his feet for attention." In a November 30, 2017 statement, Hammer sent a statement to the USF and NRA members and friends, calling on them to email Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente to tell her to resign. Her letter included the November 30, 2017 News Service Florida weekly political briefing notes, launching Hammer's campaign to "purge" Justice Pariente from a case, "which centers on whether [Governor Scott, who is pro gun] or his successor has the legal authority to appoint replacements for three justices" that "could have far reaching implications for the makeup of the court". In an interview with the News Service, Hammer said that, "The majority of our [The Supreme Court of Florida|Florida supreme court] is liberal leaning and biased against the Second Amendment of the U. S. Constitution." She said that, the proposal to "allow Floridians with concealed weapons licenses to carry firearms" at religious institutions, is a "private property rights measure." She said with "2018 an election year it's important to know who isn't being truthful in their support of Second Amendment issues We had Republicans who joined the Democrats as obstructionists last year, and bills would be (temporarily postponed), which was a type of protectionism for Republicans. This year, thankfully, they voted. They've been outed, and now we can report it." on a point scale ranging from A+ to F. Governor Rick Scott, for example had the highest rating of A+ for his "unmatched record of support for the Second Amendment in Florida. Rick has signed more pro gun bills into law in one term than any other governor in Florida history." On February 22, 2018, in her position as USF executive director and as past president of the NRA, Hammer asked USF and NRA members and friends to email politicians that "Gun control won't protect our children." She recommended that politicians focus on providing armed security in schools and on tightening of mental health laws. On April 18, 2018, in her position as USF executive director and past president of the NRA, Hammer lambasted Simpson over his vote on SB 7026, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. She said he was a "betrayer" and "lacked the courage to uphold their oath of office and keep their word to constituents who voted for them. "[33]

In June 2022, it was announced that Hammer would retire as the state lobbyist for the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) in Florida, taking on a new role as an adviser to the NRA, focused on national gun advocacy.

Hammer began to develop the NRA program for children, Eddie Eagle GunSafe, in 1988, which was updated by Lisa Monroe, a University of Oklahoma School of Education early childhood education specialist contracted by the NRA. According to the NRA, by 2016, there were 28 million children who had completed the Eddie Eagle program. In their testimony in Tennessee in 2016, the NRA lobbyist said that the Eddie Eagle program was the most effective way "to reduce firearm related accidents" regarding children.

Hammer was awarded with the Outstanding Community Service Award from the National Safety Council in 1993. In 2020, Hammer was listed by Slate as one of its "Most Influential Americans Over 80."

Hammer's grandson has a disability and she has lobbied so that children with dyslexia can "use talking computers during standardized tests". She has "helped secure funding for the McKay scholarships for children with disabilities" and for funding to install "speed limit signs outside private schools". In a February 11, 2016 statement, Hammer called on Governor Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and the Florida legislature to abolish Swiftmud and to investigate Swiftmud's "blatant and wanton Civil Rights/Second Amendment rights violations." Hammer wrote that Swiftmud was "a malignant state agency that uses unlimited tax dollars in what I can only called an evil attempt to steal private property and destroy a small private business." Hammer met with Ben Albritton, the head of the committee that funds Swiftmud. Hammer said that a NRA lawyer wrote the document that spelled out the terms of the dismissal of the Swiftmud lawsuit. Hammer then sent this to Albritton and Governor Scott's office. Albritton had his assistant send an email to Swiftmud's Colleen Thayer with an attachment that spelled out the terms of the dismissal of the Swiftmud lawsuit. It was written as if Swiftmud had already consented to it. The digital signature on the document was "Marion". On November 28, 2018, U. S. District Judge Robert Hinkle dismissed Hammer's claims against Lawrence Sorensen, a California attorney who had sent her two emails on March 24 with graphic images of gunshot wounds. Justice Hinkle said that Sorensen's emails, which he described as "disgusting" were protected by the First Amendment. Justice Hinkle said that, "The photographs were graphic, partly because they apparently depicted actual injuries. But images as graphic, or nearly so, can be seen in movies and video games, on cable if not also network television, and in medical literature. The photographs were germane to the policy debate that Ms. Hammer regularly participated in and Mr. Sorensen apparently sought to join. Sending these photographs, at least in these circumstances, was not tortious. And treating them as tortious would violate the First Amendment." The dismissal is "limited to Sorensen".