![](\"https:\/\/www.google-analytics.com\/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+NRA%27s+influential+Florida+lobbyist%2C+Marion+Hammer%2C+is+retiring&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDA4MzU1MzUzMDEzMTkyMzAwMzY5MjY1Mw004)\")
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12091,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[],"tags":[1136,1135],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMarion Hammer, a fierce gun-rights advocate whose career spanned almost half a century, is retiring from her post as the Florida lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, the organization announced Thursday.<\/p>\n
Hammer, 83, successfully shepherded a host of measures that helped to earn Florida the \u201cGunshine State\u201d moniker and made it a launching pad for gun-related laws that later took hold throughout the country.<\/p>\n
Hammer spent 44 years as a lobbyist for the NRA and served as the first woman president of the national gun-rights group. In the Florida Capitol, she earned a reputation as a no-nonsense, blunt advocate whose tenacity was unmatched.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarion Hammer\u2019s name has become synonymous with the Second Amendment and with 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,\u201d NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre said in a statement Thursday announcing Hammer\u2019s retirement.<\/p>\n
According to the announcement, Hammer will continue to serve as an adviser to the NRA \u201cso our members can continue to benefit from her expertise and defense of their freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hammer was the driving force behind the state\u2019s 2005 \u201cstand your ground law,\u201d an expansion of the more-traditional \u201cCastle Doctrine,\u201d which allowed people to use deadly force to defend themselves in their homes.<\/p>\n
The \u201cstand your ground\u201d law, the first of its kind in the nation, more broadly said people are justified in using deadly force and do not have a \u201cduty to retreat\u201d if they believe it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm. When the defense is successfully raised in pre-trial hearings, defendants are granted immunity from prosecution.<\/p>\n
In 1987, Hammer pushed through a law requiring the state to issue concealed-weapon licenses to people who meet certain requirements. Every state in the nation now has laws on the books allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons. Florida has more than 2.7 million active concealed-weapons licenses.<\/p>\n
The Florida law marked a watershed policy shift in the relaxation of gun regulations amid the NRA\u2019s ascendent political power in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
In a telephone interview Thursday, Hammer called the \u201cshall issue\u201d license policy her biggest achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a turning point because people started realizing that government is supposed to follow the Constitution, and to take away your right and not give you the opportunity to exercise a right if they didn\u2019t like you, was wrong. The law says that criminals can\u2019t carry guns. So they were not issuing licenses to carry if they didn\u2019t like you in some areas. If you\u2019re not a criminal, and you\u2019re not prohibited under federal law from owning or possessing a firearm, you should be able to get a license to carry concealed. It\u2019s not at the whim of government. It\u2019s a qualification issue,\u201d Hammer said.<\/p>\n
In 1996, Hammer was elected NRA president, a position she held for two years. She recently was re-elected to another three-year term on the organization\u2019s board of directors, a position she has held since 1982.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s retirement announcement elicited praise for Hammer from Republicans, including Senate President Wilton Simpson, a Trilby Republican who called her a \u201cfriend and mentor to so many.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStanding in the breach against left-wing extremists who want to take our guns, Marion has successfully advocated for critical self-defense and firearm safety programs and requirements that educate families about the responsibilities associated with owning a firearm,\u201d Simpson, who is running this year for state agriculture commissioner, said in a Twitter post.<\/p>\n
But Hammer also could be a lightning-rod figure. Gun-control advocates celebrated her retirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarion Hammer has been a driving force to weaken Florida\u2019s gun laws for decades, working to pass deadly policies and then conspiring with the NRA to extrapolate worst practices to other states,\u201d Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, said in a prepared statement Thursday. \u201cBut, ultimately, Moms Demand Action volunteers have outlasted Hammer. The movement for gun safety has never been stronger and our volunteers will continue to outwork and out-organize the gun lobby, and undo the damage they\u2019ve done while saving lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
With her trademark bowl-shaped gray haircut, bright blue or red blazers and soft Southern drawl, Hammer — an inch shy of 5 feet tall — was a force to be reckoned with in the Capitol.<\/p>\n
Her clashes with gun-control advocates and Democrats over a panoply of legislation, including the \u201cstand your ground\u201d bill, might have reached a crescendo following the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 14 students and three faculty members were killed.<\/p>\n
The massacre occurred while Florida lawmakers were holding a legislative session. Amid pressure from students and parents, Republican leaders quickly passed one of the first measures to limit gun rights in the state\u2019s modern history.<\/p>\n
A sweeping school-safety bill raised from 18 to 21 the age to purchase long guns such as rifles and created a \u201cred-flag\u201d law allowing authorities to remove guns from people who pose a threat to themselves or others for up to a year.<\/p>\n
At the time, Hammer criticized the legislation, accusing lawmakers of floating \u201cpolitical eyewash\u201d that \u201cpunishes\u201d gun owners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a betrayal of law-abiding gun owners who did absolutely nothing. All of the laws in place to identify and stop this kind of activity failed. So since they can\u2019t actually punish those failures, they\u2019re going to punish law-abiding gun owners. And of course, we always obey the law, so they don\u2019t have to worry about us before or after they pass this gratuitous gun control,\u201d Hammer told the News Service in 2018.<\/p>\n
The NRA filed a lawsuit challenging the part of the law that raised the age to 21 to purchase long guns. A federal district judge upheld the law, but the case is pending at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n
The litigation revealed that Hammer had been the subject of threatening emails, including some that were too explicit to reprint in newspapers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people cannot support their personal feelings with facts and reality, they resort to personal attacks on other people. So when someone who supports gun control attacks me and blames me, they are diverting attention away from the fact that they\u2019re wrong. They\u2019re absolutely wrong. They don\u2019t like guns. It\u2019s not what they like. They cannot prove that guns are the problem. Because guns aren\u2019t the problem. People are the problem, and they don\u2019t want to admit it,\u201d Hammer said Thursday. \u201cThese nonviolent people threatened to kill me and my family. Now what does that tell you about them?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hammer also displayed her feistiness Thursday as she again criticized the \u201cred-flag\u201d law, which is being considered as a model for other states in the aftermath of mass shootings in Texas and New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a model for nobody. It has been abused many, many times in the state of Florida and I would stress the importance of finding a way to stop abuse of average law-abiding citizens,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
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