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Gun rights champion's hall of fame nomination ignites furor
By Dara Kam
Special to The Palm Beach Post
Saturday, March 12, 2005
TALLAHASSEE — The pistol-packing grandma about to be inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame is the most controversial appointment since its inception 22 years ago.
Why?
Because Marion Hammer, a squat senior citizen with a soft Southern twang, was the first — and only — female president of the National Rifle Association.
Gun control advocates and women's rights groups are outraged at the selection of Hammer, one of three women Gov. Jeb Bush tapped this year to join writer Zora Neale Hurston, tennis star Chris Evert, former state Education Commissioner Betty Castor and Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings among others "who have made significant improvement of life for women and for all citizens of Florida," according to the Hall of Fame's Web site.
Hammer, who said she never tells anyone how many guns she owns because "it's nobody's business," remains nonplussed.
"Isn't that a hoot?" she chuckled when told that the National Organization for Women and others plan to protest her nomination on Monday, the day before the induction ceremony takes place in the Capitol.
"Women who are out there trying to promote advancement for women, protesting the recognition of a woman who has broken many glass ceilings," Hammer said. "That's just a hoot."
But women's rights proponents aren't laughing, and neither are gun control activists who call her a "threat to public safety."
"Marion Hammer has been a strident advocate for weapons that kill and maim, even assault weapons," said Linda Miklowitz, the outgoing president of the Florida chapter of NOW. "She's an embarrassment to the Women's Hall of Fame."
Breaking glass ceilings isn't enough, Miklowitz said, "if it's for negative reasons."
Hammer is a Tallahassee lobbyist who works for the NRA and the Unified Sportsmen of Florida. She also lobbies pro bono for children with learning disabilities, the result of her experiences with her grandson who has severe dyslexia, and she was appointed by former Senate President John McKay to sit on a task force for scholarships for disabled children task.
She said she has known Gov. Bush for nearly 25 years and considers him a friend, but acknowledges that the political clout of the 4.4 million member-strong NRA gains her access to the governor and Republican lawmakers.
This year she is promoting a bill (HB 249) that would give people the right to defend themselves with guns in public.
"A person who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force," the bill reads.
"It's back to the frontier," said Arthur Hayhoe, executive director of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Inc. "It's shoot first and ask questions later. And you tell me this woman is not a threat to public safety?"
But Hammer says, "There's still people out there who want to take your gold from you (your money), who want to take your homestead from you (your property), who want to take your horse from you (your vehicle)."
Hammer — who learned to shoot, hunt and "hook the mule up to the plow" growing up on her grandfather's farm in Columbia, S.C. — has toted the same Colt.38 Special with a 2-inch barrel since she received Florida's first concealed weapons permit in 1987, after successfully persuading lawmakers to approve her "Right to Carry" bill.
"Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, I carry a Ruger.357 Magnum," Hammer said. "And I still have license number one."
Although the.357 Magnum is probably more often associated with Clint Eastwood's character in Dirty Harry, Florida's answer to Annie Oakley calls hers "a gal's gun. It's got more stopping power."
Attorney General Charlie Crist, who is expected to run for governor in 2006, nominated Hammer and said he doesn't see what all the fuss is all about.
"She might be controversial to some people, but not to me," Crist said, adding she is a "freedom fighter who has expanded the freedoms" of Floridians by her advocacy for the Second Amendment.
The women who selected Hammer and nine others out of about 80 nominations said Hammer's political philosophy did not enter into their decision.
"Maybe it was just that we didn't think of the political fallout," said Anita Mitchell, a lobbyist from West Palm Beach who is chairwoman of the Hall of Fame Committee and a member of the Florida Commission on the Status of Women.
Bush chose the three inductees. The others are Shirley D. Coletti and Judith Kersey. Coletti, of Clearwater, founded one of the largest drug treatment and abuse prevention programs in the nation, Operation Parental Awareness and Responsibility Inc. Kersey, of Cape Canaveral, is a scientist and engineer who worked on the Saturn and space shuttle missions at the Kennedy Space Center and has held numerous positions with the Society of Women Engineers.
Hammer's "tenacity and courage and her effectiveness," her work creating nationally recognized children's gun safety programs and her work on behalf of dyslexic children such as her grandson spurred the selection committee's choice.
"From a PR point of view, maybe we made a mistake," Mitchell said, "but I'd rather err on the side of the way that we did it.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/news/epaper/2005/03/12/m1a_hammer_0312.html
By Dara Kam
Special to The Palm Beach Post
Saturday, March 12, 2005
TALLAHASSEE — The pistol-packing grandma about to be inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame is the most controversial appointment since its inception 22 years ago.
Why?
Because Marion Hammer, a squat senior citizen with a soft Southern twang, was the first — and only — female president of the National Rifle Association.
Gun control advocates and women's rights groups are outraged at the selection of Hammer, one of three women Gov. Jeb Bush tapped this year to join writer Zora Neale Hurston, tennis star Chris Evert, former state Education Commissioner Betty Castor and Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings among others "who have made significant improvement of life for women and for all citizens of Florida," according to the Hall of Fame's Web site.
Hammer, who said she never tells anyone how many guns she owns because "it's nobody's business," remains nonplussed.
"Isn't that a hoot?" she chuckled when told that the National Organization for Women and others plan to protest her nomination on Monday, the day before the induction ceremony takes place in the Capitol.
"Women who are out there trying to promote advancement for women, protesting the recognition of a woman who has broken many glass ceilings," Hammer said. "That's just a hoot."
But women's rights proponents aren't laughing, and neither are gun control activists who call her a "threat to public safety."
"Marion Hammer has been a strident advocate for weapons that kill and maim, even assault weapons," said Linda Miklowitz, the outgoing president of the Florida chapter of NOW. "She's an embarrassment to the Women's Hall of Fame."
Breaking glass ceilings isn't enough, Miklowitz said, "if it's for negative reasons."
Hammer is a Tallahassee lobbyist who works for the NRA and the Unified Sportsmen of Florida. She also lobbies pro bono for children with learning disabilities, the result of her experiences with her grandson who has severe dyslexia, and she was appointed by former Senate President John McKay to sit on a task force for scholarships for disabled children task.
She said she has known Gov. Bush for nearly 25 years and considers him a friend, but acknowledges that the political clout of the 4.4 million member-strong NRA gains her access to the governor and Republican lawmakers.
This year she is promoting a bill (HB 249) that would give people the right to defend themselves with guns in public.
"A person who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force," the bill reads.
"It's back to the frontier," said Arthur Hayhoe, executive director of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Inc. "It's shoot first and ask questions later. And you tell me this woman is not a threat to public safety?"
But Hammer says, "There's still people out there who want to take your gold from you (your money), who want to take your homestead from you (your property), who want to take your horse from you (your vehicle)."
Hammer — who learned to shoot, hunt and "hook the mule up to the plow" growing up on her grandfather's farm in Columbia, S.C. — has toted the same Colt.38 Special with a 2-inch barrel since she received Florida's first concealed weapons permit in 1987, after successfully persuading lawmakers to approve her "Right to Carry" bill.
"Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, I carry a Ruger.357 Magnum," Hammer said. "And I still have license number one."
Although the.357 Magnum is probably more often associated with Clint Eastwood's character in Dirty Harry, Florida's answer to Annie Oakley calls hers "a gal's gun. It's got more stopping power."
Attorney General Charlie Crist, who is expected to run for governor in 2006, nominated Hammer and said he doesn't see what all the fuss is all about.
"She might be controversial to some people, but not to me," Crist said, adding she is a "freedom fighter who has expanded the freedoms" of Floridians by her advocacy for the Second Amendment.
The women who selected Hammer and nine others out of about 80 nominations said Hammer's political philosophy did not enter into their decision.
"Maybe it was just that we didn't think of the political fallout," said Anita Mitchell, a lobbyist from West Palm Beach who is chairwoman of the Hall of Fame Committee and a member of the Florida Commission on the Status of Women.
Bush chose the three inductees. The others are Shirley D. Coletti and Judith Kersey. Coletti, of Clearwater, founded one of the largest drug treatment and abuse prevention programs in the nation, Operation Parental Awareness and Responsibility Inc. Kersey, of Cape Canaveral, is a scientist and engineer who worked on the Saturn and space shuttle missions at the Kennedy Space Center and has held numerous positions with the Society of Women Engineers.
Hammer's "tenacity and courage and her effectiveness," her work creating nationally recognized children's gun safety programs and her work on behalf of dyslexic children such as her grandson spurred the selection committee's choice.
"From a PR point of view, maybe we made a mistake," Mitchell said, "but I'd rather err on the side of the way that we did it.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/news/epaper/2005/03/12/m1a_hammer_0312.html
I have to go gauge out my eye or something else to get the image out of my head!...