Joe Henderson
In Tallahassee, Marion Hammer is known as well as any state lawmaker, probably better than most of them. As a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, her ferocious take-no-prisoners advocacy for the expansion of Florida’s gun laws is renowned.
Her impact on this state is immense. She is, by any measure, a public figure.
Without question, the public has a right to know which elected representatives she speaks with and what she says to them. The Sunshine Law has that covered.
But when the public fights back in a way that a federal judge found disturbing, is that also protected? That’s the question now before a federal appeals court.
In the aftermath of the slaughter of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Hammer received unsolicited emails from Lawrence Sorensen, a California attorney and mediator. Those emails contained graphic photos of gunshot wounds.
Hammer sued, citing harassment and threats. Last November, Senior U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle dismissed the suit on First Amendment grounds, although he conceded the images were “inappropriate, indeed disgusting.”
He also said Sorenson didn’t threaten Hammer, adding, “Tolerating incivility, at least to some extent, is a price a nation pays for freedom.”
That dismissal itself now is under appeal.
In a brief filed with the 11th U.S. District Court of Appeals, Sorenson’s attorney argued, “The photographs are real, and, in this case, they were sent to induce a public figure (perhaps the most significant public figure on this issue) to change her position or at least consider the damage that can be done by the products she promotes.”
Hammer fiercely fought against the tepid gun restrictions passed by the Legislature in the aftermath of the Parkland killings. The law banned the possession of bump stocks. It also imposed a three-day waiting period on the purchase of most long guns, while making 21 the minimum age to buy those weapons.
She said lawmakers “caved to bullying and coercion” and referred to “turncoat Republicans.” And she had special criticism for then-Gov. Rick Scott, who pushed for and signed the bill.
“(Scott) put his hand on a Bible and took an oath to support, protect and defend the Constitution,” Hammer told The News Service of Florida. “So, Gov. Scott has a hard time keeping his word.”
But Scott is an elected official whose every move theoretically is an open book. Marion Hammer contends she is a private citizen, her public side notwithstanding. Hinkle obviously disagreed.
Hammer and the NRA have had more to do with the expanded availability of guns in Florida than anyone ever.
I am sure she is proud of that. She believes without hesitation that she is right under the U.S. Constitution. Hammer has used her clout to keep Republican lawmakers in line for years, which is her right.
But as difficult as it was for her to see photos of what gunshots can do, imagine how hard it was for parents in Parkland to hear their children were never coming home. And a good guy with a gun wouldn’t have saved them.
Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt if more unyielding supporters of the Second Amendment saw what that can sometimes mean.
Judge Hinkle is right. I’m sure those photos were disgusting. So were the deaths of 17 people because a 19-year-old had a grudge and a gun.
There are (at least) two sides to every story.
6 comments
Bryan J Smith
July 23, 2019 at 7:49 pm
As a Libertarian, I support the e-mail on a 1st Amendment basis. As long as it’s not stalking and continual harrassment, there is no grounds for her lawsuit.
At the same time, Americans have to face facts on the 2nd Amendment. Legal gun owners, even this young man that ‘went off the deep end,’ are still the small minority of homicide criminals. Organized crime still rules that, and always will.
It’s why the US is more like the Philippines, with an active insurrection, than an European country … *until* organized crime statistics are reduced. Then the US looks as good as an European nation, sans the UK of course, who continues to have a rise in violent crime, especially London. Correspondingly, Australia has continued to have a steady rise in home invasions since ’96, while homicides have not gone down any more than they were already going down the prior 20 years — the ’70s being the heyday of homicides.
School shootings and public shootings continue to go down, despite the DoJ forcing the FBI to ‘redefine’ them in 2013, and the statistics now being ‘surveys’ instead of proof. NPR has gone at length to cover those ‘false statitics.’ The heyday of school shootings was and still is the ’90s, with the arrival of 24×7 news.
Even in Florida, even according to the Gifford’s, the homicide rate is 25th per-capita. Removing organized crime and Florida drops to the bottom 10 per-capita. Might have a lot to do with guns in the hands of law abiding Floridians. Take away guns and you’ll quickly find out how organized crime encroaches in areas … just as New York has gone to hide its statistics on those facts, among others, in its new laws, just like DC and Chicago did too.
That’s what bothers me most, the government trying to undermine the 2nd Amendment by hiding statistics after laws are passed to curb rights. For the laws to exist, the courts are clear — the state *must* show the public safety reasons for reducing freedoms, and covering them up goes to suggest the opposite.
Guns will always exist in the US. The only question will be if they will only be in the hands of politicians and the rich who can afford armed security, nor not, and organized crime.
NPR: Despite Heightened Fear Of School Shootings, It’s Not A Growing Epidemic
– https://www.npr.org/2018/03/15/593831564/the-disconnect-between-perceived-danger-in-u-s-schools-and-reality
NPR: The School Shootings That Weren’t
– https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/08/27/640323347/the-school-shootings-that-werent
Fed Up
July 23, 2019 at 9:53 pm
Bravo Joe!
Edward Abbot
July 24, 2019 at 7:53 am
I take exception to your comment that ‘a good guy with a gun wouldn’t have saved them.’ You don’t KNOW that, nor do I, but a good guy with a gun MIGHT have saved some of them.
WILLIAM C CHRISTY
July 26, 2019 at 11:23 am
There was a good guy with a gun, a police office that swore to protect and serve but did neither. He hid out and ordered fellow officers to do the same. He could have saved lives but he made a conscious choice to not do so. I truly hope he is sent to prison for his crimes.
Ron Z
July 24, 2019 at 8:14 am
Why did he not send pictures of car crashes or people being cut up with knives.
Anyway, It does not matter,
We have a constitution and a bill of rights. The 2nd. amendment is in plain enough ENGLISH that this right of freedom “””SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED”””
It is “NOT” about anything on the Bloomberg & Soros owned Democratic party but to disarm all of America because they know for a fact that they will never fully control an armed America.
Fed Up
July 24, 2019 at 8:41 am
Who would you say owns tbe Republican Party, Ron? The Kochs? The Mercers? The Adelsons? Steve Bannon? The NRA? The Russians?
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