Florida’s chief NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer is standing her ground in a whole new way.
This month, the 79-year-old grandmother and the guiding hand of permissive gun legislation in Florida for decades, filed a 129-page federal lawsuit [1]that is mostly a compilation of the bitter, profane and sometimes threatening emails she received after the February massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
“Because of you, people have died,” one of the emails reads. “We hold you culpable for all the innocent lives murdered and for facilitating gun violence. You should never rest easy or in peace.”
The theme of many of these messages is that Hammer ought to be consigned to a future in Hell, and the language is usually coarse.
“You should be forced to clean up the blood and guts mess inside the Parkland High School and tell the families of those slain how important your gun lobby job is!” one email-er wrote her on the night of the massacre. “You are a piece of s—-! May you and all the NRA whores burn in hell!!”
As for the blood and guts, a few people sent her graphic color photos of other gunshot wound victims. And some of the people who found her email address, sent her threatening messages that wished her harm and wondered how she would feel if her own grandchildren were killed by guns.
“I pray everyday that one of these ‘good’ people puts 100 bullets between your eyes so we can celebrate,” one e-mailer wrote her.
Hammer’s lawsuit claims the messages to her amount to cyber-stalking, harassment, the “intentional infliction of emotional distress” and an intrusion on her “seclusion.” She named four e-mailers as defendants, but mostly included e-mails from others she isn’t
