The 4'11" power behind the "Stand your Ground" legislation
This law was NRA driven from the get go. It was not introduced because of citizen demand or need. It was introduced and passed by the Florida legislature purely because the NRA wanted it. We can all thank Marion Hammer.
"So maybe call her the Lady Gaga of guns. She certainly is wild about firearms. “I’m four foot- 11, I’m 67 years old. If you come at me, and I felt that my life was in danger or that I was going to be injured, I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot you,” she declared the other day.
But do not call her simply a lobbyist. To do so drastically underestimates her while equally overestimating the state legislature.
Hammer does not so much lobby as orchestrate the legislature to do her bidding and therefore the bidding of the NRA, where she formerly served for three years as its first woman president. She continued to serve as a consultant and lobbyist known for standing her own ground. The NRA credits her with being the propelling force behind the Stand Your Ground Law that the Sanford chief of police and local prosecutor cited when they instructed the investigating detectives not to arrest George Zimmerman for shooting 17 year-old Trayvon Martin in February.
She has acknowledged having a hand in actually drafting the enabling Stand Your Ground legislation back in 2004. She introduced it through a proxy, State Sen. Dennis Baxley, whom she had previously arranged to receive the NRA’s 2004 Defender of Freedom Award."
<snip>
Yet, she does not seem to be one of those NRA executives who are really just doing the bidding of the gun industry by cynically seeking to manipulate decent working people with the fear that government is trying to take away their rights. She seems to be a true believer and she has proposed a simple way to ensure gun rights.
“Get rid of all the liberals,” she said.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/28/marion-hammer-woman-behind-stand-your-ground.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
then I looked for the report, from the VPC, that he was talking about in it and I was not impressed...
http://www.vpc.org/studies/bloodmoney.pdf
have you actually read it? Did you do the research to back it up? or are you just a believer?
The NRA's budget is around $80 million a year... at most according to the report Mike used as the basis of his argument manufactures and industry donate $7 million per year... less then 10%... and that was their high estimate... the lower one is probably less then they spend in paper per year...
you can do the math though... the NRA has around 3,000,000 members who pay $25 a year to be members.... that comes out to $75 million... I know some pay reduce, some get free memberships, lifetime members, etc... but that really is where the majority of their funding comes from...
to dig a little further... the portion that is used for political purposes is not from the NRA... it's from their Institute for Legislative Action group which is forbidden by law from getting money from the main NRA organization... their budget is a couple of million
next thing... the money that does come from industry does not go to either the Institute for Legislative Action or the NRA proper. it is donated to the National Shooting Sports Association. I do think the round up and add a buck things do go to the NRA proper as they are really donations from individuals...
but believe what you will... everyone needs a boogyman...
Really? 
What an awful woman...
True 
