by Marion Hammer is retiring from her role as a lobbyist for the NRA in Florida. I presume that means she is also stepping down as Executive Director of the United Sportsmen of Florida. She has held this position for 44 years.
But don’t cry for Marion yet.
From the Tampa Bay Times:
Marion Hammer, who became a nationally recognized institution of gun politics in Florida, is retiring after four decades working as a state lobbyist for the National Rifle Association.
Instead, Hammer will serve as an adviser to the NRA, focused on gun advocacy beyond just Florida, according to a Thursday statement from the NRA.
For her service as an “adviser to the NRA”, Marion received $270,000 in 2021. This is according the Report of the Secretary given out at the 2022 Meeting of Members in Houston on May 28th. The payment was classified as “consulting expenses”. The minutes from the NRA’s 2021 Annual Meeting held in Charlotte, NC said this was for “issues affecting the NRA in jurisdictions other than Florida.”
It is my understanding that Marion has a 10-year contract with the NRA for “consulting services”.
Regarding his chief defender and enforcer, Wayne LaPierre had this to say.
“Marion Hammer’s name has become synonymous with the Second Amendment and with the NRA,” said Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and CEO of the NRA. “She is a dynamic and legendary advocate who has led the way with many laws that started in Florida and then served as a blueprint across the country.”
I will grant you that Marion had some big successes including stand your ground and shall-issue carry permits. She has also had some major failures.
Again, from the Tampa Bay Times:
Following the Parkland shooting that killed 17, the Legislature and then-Gov. Rick Scott moved a bill that raised the minimum age for gun purchases, banned bump stocks and instilled a waiting period for gun purchase, provisions Hammer opposed.
I might also note that open carry is illegal in Florida with limited exceptions.
If I come across as a little cynical regarding Marion Hammer, it is because I am. She has opposed all moves to reform the NRA, she refers to reformers as “the enemy within”, and her chief job lately seems to be as the enforcer cracking the whip to keep most of the NRA Board in line with Wayne’s wishes. I see continuing payments to her as a payoff for protecting Wayne from being ousted in the 1990s and for continuing those efforts throughout the years.
UPDATE: Attached below is the release that the NRA sent out announcing Marion’s retirement as a lobbyist.
Yes she hammers the opposition.
Why is it that the word retire when used in connection with the NRA seems to indicate that the person just doesn’t have to go to the office? They still get the same bloated salary, invited to the same cocktail parties, probably get the latest trinkets from all the big name gun manufactures.
It seems funny that people like me, a steel worker who actually made steel for most of the firearms manufactures to build their guns out of, for over 35 years, pay my 45$ membership dues, and less than 1 month later, I get a letter in the mail, begging me to renew my membership. Yet I am getting asked for money almost weekly, to help keep our gun rights, when we all know that nearly every fan time taken in right now pays for the legal fees of some of the most crooked SOB’s thàt I have seen since Nixon.
And yet these people have no problem announcing that Marion Hammer is going to graft even more hundreds of thousands of dollars from the members, at a time when the organization can least afford it. And after they have announced the pitiful amount that they plan on spending on the election for the midterms.
I hope that when the lawsuit is over, and the dust settles, the principals involved are forced to pay back money taken wrongjy. And I hope that it is enough that it hurts. Even if it is one dollar more than they each have, it would be enough. They have caused enough harm to what had been, until they took over, a proud and honorable organization. Let’s hope that it is in our future, once again.
This is what happens when water is thrown on her.