{"id":104730,"date":"2024-10-02T21:52:41","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T02:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=104730"},"modified":"2024-10-02T21:52:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T02:52:41","slug":"104730","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=104730","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Marion Hammer Resigns From NRA Board, Talks to AmmoLand News<\/a><\/p>\n

Marion Hammer, the first female president of the National Rifle Association and\u00a0veteran gun rights lobbyist in Florida<\/a>\u00a0as head of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida (USF),\u00a0has resigned<\/a>\u00a0from the NRA Board of Directors, ending a 42-year tenure as one of the organization\u2019s most powerful voices.<\/p>\n

First elected to the board in 1982, Hammer rose through the ranks and served as NRA President for two terms, from 1995 to 1998. She stepped into the role upon the death of then-President Tom Washington, who had suffered a heart attack while hunting deer in Michigan. Standing barely 5 feet tall, Hammer earned a reputation for being a tough and effective proponent of the Second Amendment and the NRA.<\/p>\n

In a telephone chat with AmmoLand News, she confirmed that NRA halted grants to maintain USF, so the organization effectively no longer exists.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Hammer, now 85 and with a slightly frail voice, acknowledges what was in an email to an unidentified confidant and which has been published on the website NRAinDanger<\/a>. In that message, Hammer recalled she had been encouraged to run for the BOD in 1981 by the late Harlon B. Carter. She contacted then-NRA Secretary Warren Cheek, telling him she would run only if nominated by the Nominating Committee, not by petition.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In that message, she also wrote,\u00a0\u201cThe NRA today is both a disappointment and an embarrassment.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Her resignation is from the board only. She remains a member of the Executive Council, and the only thing she says has changed is that she no longer has a vote as an NRA director, but she still has \u201ca voice.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t been able to go to board meetings for quite a while,\u201d Hammer said. \u201cI made room for somebody who can vote.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Comments on NRAinDanger were\u00a0not entirely flattering to Ms. Hammer<\/a>, reminding readers she was former Executive Vice President Wayne \u201cLaPierre\u2019s most staunch\u2026defender.\u201d However, at least a couple of respondents noted how Hammer \u201cwas the tail that wagged the dog for the 2nd Amendment in Florida. And Florida became the tail that wagged the USA to where we now have 29 Constitutional Carry states. What happened in Florida got us to\u00a0Heller<\/em>, to\u00a0McDonald<\/em>, and to\u00a0Bruen<\/em>.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another reader responded, \u201cI was on a couple conference calls late 80s early 90s\u2026that she was part of. She truly was a force of nature back then.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, others are highly critical, citing, among other things, money she was paid by NRA to lead and operate Unified Sportsmen of Florida.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Her time as NRA president was tumultuous, with an often-bitter internal struggle within the board continuing through most of her presidency.<\/p>\n

Hammer wrote in the note quoted at NRAinDanger that, \u201cMy understanding is that membership has already dropped significantly and is still dropping.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Declining membership has been a theme of several reports about the NRA\u2014typically from sources unfriendly to the organization\u2014in the wake of a corruption scandal which brought an investigation by New York State Attorney General Letitia James, resulting in a civil lawsuit which brought an end to LaPierre\u2019s long tenure as the organization\u2019s CEO. While others were\u00a0brought to testify at the civil trial<\/a>, Hammer noted she was not among witnesses either for the prosecution or defense.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hammer came under fire from the<\/span>\u00a0Washington Post<\/a>\u00a0just over five years ago\u2014in mid-September 2019\u2014when she reportedly took out low-interest loans \u201ctotaling more than $250,000.\u201d The newspaper did an 1,800-word report at the time, which was at the beginning of the investigation into LaPierre\u2019s leadership and alleged lavish spending of NRA funds.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The WaPo story noted that the USF board of directors had approved the loans, according to a tax filing.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Trace<\/a>\u2014a gun control news organ backed by anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg\u2014reported in February 2023 that the organization had lost a million members.<\/p>\n

In November 2023,\u00a0Newsweek<\/a>\u00a0declared the NRA \u201cis slowly dying,\u201d citing details in The Trace story as a source.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Earlier this year, the New York Times<\/a>\u00a0also reported on the NRA\u2019s apparent decline.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Critical stories seemed to portray NRA as an organization suffering from growing public criticism because of mass shootings in recent years, an allegation which the firearms community sees as ludicrous. NRA has not been responsible for any of those tragedies but has only defended the Second Amendment against efforts to erode the right of the people to keep and bear arms by anti-gunners exploiting those events.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hammer confirmed her lawsuit against NRA is not affected by her board resignation but added she has been advised by legal counsel to not discuss the ongoing case.<\/p>\n

Hammer explained her role on the Executive Council and said she continues to correspond with board members.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can communicate with them,\u201d she said. \u201cI will continue to do that.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But quitting the BOD\u00a0\u201crelieves me of having to go to board meetings unless I particularly want to,<\/em>\u201d which she does not seem interested in doing at this point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marion Hammer Resigns From NRA Board, Talks to AmmoLand News Marion Hammer, the first female president of the National Rifle Association and\u00a0veteran gun rights lobbyist in Florida\u00a0as head of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida (USF),\u00a0has resigned\u00a0from the NRA Board of Directors, ending a 42-year tenure as one of the organization\u2019s most powerful voices. First elected … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104731,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104730\/revisions\/104731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}