I caught this yesterday. These are 2 Gun People or at least allegedly.
This shit infuriates me. These people and the rest of us are standing on the achievements of this woman, yet it seems she is now undeserving of recognition and respect for whatever Internet Fashion trend is plaguing “gun owners” lately.
This was taken in 1982 when she was President of the NRA and was leading Florida into the Gun Rights fight that began the breakout for the rest of the country.
And here is another one of her at the Florida Legislature almost 4 decades later.
If you have read my blog with any consistency, you will clearly recall my disgust that during many public hearings at different subcommittees, where she was only one Pro Gun individual representing an organization who would stand against the pack of Moms Demand and other Freedom-Hating assholes. It was not a representative from Florida Carry or GOA (till last year) or any other of the Chest Thumping dumbasses who tweeted revolutionary words but had the testicular consistency of gelato when it came time to step to the plate. The only person who has consistently fought for more than four decades for gun rights and who should be now retired and enjoying her life is the one doing the work is Marion Hammer.
Maybe the reason she is still doing what she does is because nobody has the guts or half the brain to do the job needed to be done. Is Ms. Hammer out of touch with times? Maybe, but I don’t see a single fucker with one tenth of the determination and courage she had, step forward and say: “Ms. Hammer, I got this. You just make sure I do it right and take it easy.”
Instead, what I see is a bunch of entitled assholes enjoying the fruits of her labor and being petty fucks about a grand dame.
Fuck you all. You are Michael Bloomberg’s wet dream come true.
I’m both late to the fight and too early. I’ve stood in front of the Maryland Senate committee and spoken against gun grabbers. I’ve submitted testimony to the Maryland house committee and watched how both committees treated gun owners.
But I wasn’t a member of the NRA when I did this. I wasn’t a gun owner. It was important enough to me to do.
I know of Hammer but only what I’ve read. Miguel says she deserves respect and I’m willing to give her respect for what she did and what she accomplished. I’m also willing to question what she is doing now.
My only sources are Miguel and lawyersgunsmoneyblog. He has reported some things about Hammer that make me question what she is doing currently for the NRA.
THIS stuff is what soured me on the whole “gun movement”. When it comes down to it practically everyone has something “better” to do…
Maybe respect for what’s she has done in the past, but the entire NRA board, all directors, and CEO’s, executives and other big titles need to resign. Followed by selective criminal charges against LaPierre and any who assisted him.
I have more respect for her now that the hundreds of criticizing Chest Thumping ninnies that have done shit other than talk crap about her behind the keyboard rather than go toe to toe with Shannon and her Bloomber-funded Harpies.
It is an embarrassment that an 84-year-old woman shows more spirit that many of the “gun rights people” half her age or less.
I think that Miguel has the gist of it correct. She might be a horrible person. She might be a scammer. She might be over paid. I do NOT know and I’m not accusing her of any of those things.
What she does to represent gun rights is what we need to look at.
Right now I don’t give money to the NRA. I won’t until the leadership changes.
On the other hand, this lady’s job is to represent gun rights at the legislative level in Florida. She does. As Miguel points out, all of us are all to busy when it is time to actually attend hearings and make presentations.
It is an hour from here to the state capital. I can carry in the state capital. I can attend the hearings. I don’t. You can bet there are always paid shills from Mom’s Demand at every one of those hearings. Each and every one of them with a sob story about how they were affected by people using guns (“It was so horrible that there were gun shots in another building that I left campus and walked home”, D. (camera) Hogg) and if we get one person to be there from our side, we consider it a win.
Gun’s rights demonstrations are often huge. When I testified in Annapolis there were thousands of people that had turned out because the NRA asked them to. 10 of them spent the time to write testimony against the different bills being proposed. 4 of those were my group. The committee room was packed. And every single gun grabbing group had a half dozen or more people there to represent. Every one of those groups got to have somebody speak. There was only ONE group on the pro gun side, the NRA. And they got to put one person up to speak.
In the Senate hearing it was much more reasonable. But again, only the NRA was there with a few people like my friends. I got to speak and it was amazing but it is always stacked.
The NRA is always out numbered as no matter how many people they represent there are always many other groups against them.
Hammer has been there for us for years and years and years. She is the one that shows up at every one of these hearings. She’s the one sitting there alone while facing down a dozen red shirted harpies telling sob stories.
Does she get paid to much to do that? Maybe not. She shows up. Does she get contracts from the NRA that are questionable? I don’t know, that is one of the many accusations. She shows up.
When other groups are at the point where they have somebody show up , day in, day out to fight for gun rights, then maybe we can let her go away.
Until then, we can fight to have her replaced while still respecting her.
From very old football days, Bart Starr took the Green Bay Packers to the Super Bowl and won, twice. As Packer backers my family cheered for the Packers and Bart constantly. But there came a time when we had to acknowledge that our hero, Bart, was no longer the right person to be leading the Packers. We had to find a replacement. Until that happened we still cheered for our Packers and Bart.
Ms Hammer’s email to the NRA board (and the source site referenced in the tweet above) is here:
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https://nraindanger.wordpress.com/2022/05/22/email-from-marion-hammer-to-the-nra-board/
Look, she may have done a lot for the organization and the 2A. I don’t think any of that is in dispute. The email infers there is a lot of in-fighting in the board and a lot of disdain for folks wanting in (Col Allen West). Can any of us tell who is right and and who is wrong? As a paying member, I can’t.
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There seems to be those who want LaPierre gone and those like Ms. Hammer who are defending him. Personally, if even half of the rumors about Wayne LaPierre’s excesses are true, he should be replaced. Some of them seem to be coming to light in the recent legal battles. Like a member of congress who shows up to make $175k a year and 4 years later has a net worth of 7 figures, the point of leading the NRA is not to become rich while doing so. You can’t have that much division within leadership of any organization and expect it to be successful. And when you lose guys who have been there for 20 years like Nugent? And is Allen West a bad guy for wanting to lead the NRA? I wouldn’t think so, he just seems to threaten the club establishment. Something is very wrong there, and like anyone who is concerned about where they put their money, I’d like to understand what the hell is going on before I throw more of mine in the pot.
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You would think that the 2A crowd would easily come together and be able to row in the same direction for a common goal. All this tells me is that some of the goals might not be common.
When it comes to the “old guard”, the damage has been done to this millennial. Over a decade I tried to be affect change from the inside. At just about every turn the old guard would circle the wagons at any hint that some young blood was coming for their clout or treasure.
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Are there good people in the community? Absolutely. Are there people who I wouldn’t piss on their teeth if they were on fire? 100 percent!
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I have heard the good ol’ boys titter about how well their transferables had done for value and then decry the thought of 922(o) being repealed. I’ve been at the gun clubs when a bunch of stereotypical boomer types would mock these new fangled “Tupperware” guns and deride the “plastic poodle shooters” that many younger gun enthusiasts were using. I’ve experienced the hostility that some of the old guard had towards mentoring up and coming talent in the gun industry.
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These people were told to “respect” aren’t Saints that are above reproach. People say to respect elders, I say respect is a two way street and isn’t given based solely on how many laps one has done around the sun. The disrespect that the older generations in the gun culture and industry have shown many of the following generations has soured scores of the best and brightest that wanted to contribute. Many went the way of John Galt and left the gun industry and gun culture to its own devices while they did their thing for people who would appreciate it.
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If anyone needs me, I’ll be off tending to the homestead while waiting for WLP and his ilk to make good on the promise, that they made in the August 15, 1985 issue of “The Monitor”, to fight the machine gun ban. I won’t be holding my breath while I do so.
Not sure how to put this into words but heres my ramble: the old guard needs to get off their high horse and teach the young bloods and the young bloods need to lose the chip on their shoulders and recognize the old timers have knowledge and insights from doing this for years. That means not being sanctimonious when offering to instruct on one hand and on the other to know when to zip it and listen and how to lose the ME mindset. No one jumps into any kind of advocacy and knows everything but they are also not voiceless or worthless.
Instead we get the (Bad) old guard circling the wagons and forcibly removing any newcomer who bucks their little social club and the (Lazy) young people woefully inept at any kind of political process who dont know where to start or even how to play the silly little political social games to get stuff done. “Oh thats so and so’s district, yeah he’ll listen to you on thursdays but dont talk to him tuesday or he’ll forget you. ”
Now obviously this isn’t all examples of either party but thats the scrolling through news feed hot take many will form.
As a something in the middle old before his time curmudgeon I am constantly looking on how to foster mentorship and learning but that requires humility and patience on the part of both parties and it seems like more people would rather yell with their thumbs than take a vacation day off work to support a bill in person.
Heck I got turned away from volunteering to set up tables and chairs and passing out waters before when I first started getting into 2A advocacy because that particular organization was such a good ol boys circle jerk club who was more interested having an open carry pancake breakfast every other saturday but kept at it, mostly out of spite.
I agree its disgusting how little effort many people will put into supporting what they claim is the most important right that they’ll fight to the death for but taking a vacation day or standing in the sun being polite is just a bridge too far apparently.
I would have more respect for her if I had not watched her stab us right in the damned heart back in 2011. And every year since.
The day she stopped supporting gun rights was the day she stopped deserving respect regardless of her past accomplishments.
Or do you recommend we respect figures such as Benedict Arnold, after all he was a hero until he turned coat. Or do we remember the betrayal?
I’m sure of which is more important.
“I would have more respect for her if I had not watched her stab us right in the damned heart back in 2011. And every year since.”
Love the generic excuses and non-explanations mixed with a good dose of faux indignation.
Just because something happened while you weren’t looking doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
Marion withdrew NRA support of open and campus carry in 2011 because it’d ceased to be the NRA’s bill and had been taken over by other pro-gun grassroots organizations; such as Florida Carry (which as I recall you despise).
So all the fighting in committee to get poison pill amendments purged from the bill came to naught when she took her ball and went home… and all of those amendments were put right back in on the house floor.
GOA’s current rep in Tallahassee is who broke the news because he was there. I’m certain you weren’t. But it didn’t stop you from calling him “some guy on the internet”. Who do you think you are if not some other guy on the internet?
Then she went on to blame US, the pro-gun voters, for the failure.
Marion, and the NRA, did nothing to help HB123 last year.
She said “We cannot take a position on a piece of legislation that we have not seen, We have not seen a draft. We have not been told officially and, until we know, we cannot take a position.” about SB1048 in 2018 being gutted by amendment in committee. It’s amazing that she had not seen it, when the text was posted online for weeks.
But, apparently, I have a better memory than you do.