Marion Hammer, the first female president of the National Rifle Association and veteran gun rights lobbyist in Florida as head of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida (USF), has resigned from the NRA Board of Directors, ending a 42-year tenure as one of the organization’s most powerful voices.

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.

In a telephone chat with AmmoLand News, she confirmed that NRA halted grants to maintain USF, so the organization effectively no longer exists.

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. 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.

In that message, she also wrote, “The NRA today is both a disappointment and an embarrassment.”

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 “a voice.”

“I haven’t been able to go to board meetings for quite a while,” Hammer said. “I made room for somebody who can vote.”

Comments on NRAinDanger were not entirely flattering to Ms. Hammer, reminding readers she was former Executive Vice President Wayne “LaPierre’s most staunch…defender.” However, at least a couple of respondents noted how Hammer “was 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 Heller, to McDonald, and to Bruen.”

Another reader responded, “I was on a couple conference calls late 80s early 90s…that she was part of. She truly was a force of nature back then.”

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

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

Hammer wrote in the note quoted at NRAinDanger that, “My understanding is that membership has already dropped significantly and is still dropping.”

Declining membership has been a theme of several reports about the NRA—typically from sources unfriendly to the organization—in 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’s long tenure as the organization’s CEO. While others were brought to testify at the civil trial, Hammer noted she was not among witnesses either for the prosecution or defense.

Hammer came under fire from the Washington Post just over five years ago—in mid-September 2019—when she reportedly took out low-interest loans “totaling more than $250,000.” The newspaper did an 1,800-word report at the time, which was at the beginning of the investigation into LaPierre’s leadership and alleged lavish spending of NRA funds.

The WaPo story noted that the USF board of directors had approved the loans, according to a tax filing.

The Trace—a gun control news organ backed by anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg—reported in February 2023 that the organization had lost a million members.

In November 2023, Newsweek declared the NRA “is slowly dying,” citing details in The Trace story as a source.

Earlier this year, the New York Times also reported on the NRA’s apparent decline.

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.

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.

Hammer explained her role on the Executive Council and said she continues to correspond with board members.

“I can communicate with them,” she said. “I will continue to do that.”

But quitting the BOD “relieves me of having to go to board meetings unless I particularly want to,” which she does not seem interested in doing at this point.

About Dave Workman