Death threats kept Hammer from gun law hearing

Marion Hammer, the NRA’s top lobbyist in Florida, didn’t attend Tuesday’s public hearing on a Leon County gun ordinance because of death threats.

Hammer, usually a staple at legislative hearings on gun bills, acknowledged she wouldn’t attend the hearing in an email exchange over the weekend with County Commissioner Bryan Desloge.

“The death threats come with the job,” she said in a Sunday email. “I’ve dealt with it for many, many years. But it is so ugly this time NRA is insisting that I listen to my security advisers. It always amazes me how these people who claim to want to stop violence are so quick to threaten violence. I have never been afraid of them but it really makes me angry when they threaten my family.”

More: Read the revised Leon County ordinance on gun sales

More: Cotterell: NRA’s Hammer can take the heat of gun debate

More: Hammer: The Lindley gun ordinance is not symbolic, it’s punitive

Desloge, in a Saturday email, said he learned about the threats from his aide, who’d spoken with her.

“I regret that’s happening to you,” Desloge said. “You don’t deserve to be treated in that manner — you’re just doing your job, just as I will be doing mine when I cast my vote.”

After a nearly five-hour debate, commissioners voted 6-1 to adopt an ordinance requiring background checks and a three-day waiting period for all private firearm sales on publicly accessible property, from gun shows to garage sales. Desloge, the only Republican on the commission, voted against the measure.

Hammer, past president of the NRA and executive director of Unified Sportsmen of Florida, sent a surrogate, Alex Hoffman, to the hearing. Hoffman didn’t mention the death threats, saying only that Hammer “was unable to attend the meeting tonight.”

“Despite the county attorney’s claim to the contrary, the proposed ordinance is legally and constitutionally flawed,” Hoffman said, reading from Hammer’s written remarks. “The ordinance does reach beyond the authority contained in the Florida Constitution and it is therefore a violation of the Florida firearms preemption law.”

Counties have little authority to enact gun control ordinances because of a 2011 state law that preempts nearly all gun and ammunition regulations. However, a 1998 constitutional amendment allows counties to adopt both background checks and waiting periods.

Hammer’s absence was conspicuous to some observers.

“Marion Hammer is always packing a weapon,” said Tallahassee lawyer Julie Gallagher. “Surprised this would happen or she would cave to it.”

Hammer responded by saying, "I pack a firearm. Nothing is a weapon until it is used as a weapon. When your boss tells you not to do something, you listen."

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.