Marion Hammer
AP Photo/Phil Coale

Marion Hammer, the the first female NRA president (1995-1998) and now a board member, had some rather harsh comments about NRATV for the New York Times. The Times, hardly a fan of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, has run yet another hit piece on the group. And Marion Hammer gave them a juicy quote to put right at the top.

From the New York Times:

The flash point was Thomas the Tank Engine.

Last September, the National Rifle Association’s famously combative spokeswoman, Dana Loesch, provoked widespread outrage when she took to the gun group’s streaming service to mock ethnic diversity on the popular children’s program “Thomas & Friends,” portraying the show’s talking trains in Ku Klux Klan hoods. Now, growing unease over the site’s inflammatory rhetoric, and whether it has strayed too far from the N.R.A.’s core gun-rights mission, has put its future in doubt.

The site, NRATV, is a central part of the organization’s messaging apparatus. Since its creation in 2016, it has adopted an increasingly apocalyptic, hard-right tone, warning of race wars, describing Barack Obama as a “fresh-faced flower-child president,” calling for a march on the Federal Bureau of Investigation and comparing journalists to rodents.

In recent weeks, in a rare airing of internal debate at the N.R.A., two prominent board members expressed concerns about NRATV to The New York Times. Their statements were released through the N.R.A. itself, amid what was described as an internal review of NRATV and its future.

“Since the founding of NRATV, some, including myself and other board members, have questioned the value of it,” Marion Hammer, the group’s most formidable lobbyist and a key adviser to its chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, said in a statement.

With her long past service to the NRA, you have to wonder why she’d talk (edit: in any form of a statement) to the Times at all. And why she would offer up a critique like that to the one of the NRA’s most dedicated enemies.

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117 COMMENTS

      • NRATV is and always has been a very bad idea. It only serves to document the nut cases like Dana Loesch who provide plenty of evidence to fear guns and gun owners.

        Most NRA members do not watch it, and the only non-NRA folks who spend time watching only do so to collect evidence to use against the 2A and the NRA.

        Attacking Thomas the Train was priceless. Almost makes me question my loyalty to guns. Amazing how a few words can set back the pro 2A movement by years.

        • If you’ve “never heard of this irrelevant apparatus” then how can you possibly judge it?

          …Clearly Ben is another Bloomberg Troll account!

        • I have heard of NRA TV but I do not even know where to watch it or what the contents are. About the best I do is You Tube and Full 30.

      • NRA has been compromised by FUDDS for a long time, and every misstep the NRA makes is due to FUDDS outnumbering real gun rights supporters on the board. NRATV should be a litmus test for the board – vote against it and GTFO, or vote for it and get on board and come on in for the big win.
        Besides, everyone knows Thomas the Tank Engine is racist AF anyway, so… why all the bawwing? srsly…

    • Ehh, I don’t think so myself. I actually think it is valid to question that program, if for no other reason than it looks like a giant cash sink. Honestly, for the amount of money they probably spend on that program they could produce decent content of substance. Most of what they produce looks low tier YouTube commentary. Hell, John Oliver’s reaction video on YT has multiple times the number of views of most of the content that NRATV produces.

      Ultimatly, I’d say that it’s a good idea. But the way they’re handling it is crap.

    • Good people don’t elect senile old fools, either. It’s either young fools, old fools, or just plain evil fools who do that.

  2. Damn, lady, complain to the organization and the members and leave the public the flip out of it. Jeez!! Life Member.

  4. I question why this old hag who feigns gun support is still on the board that does nothing but exist as a board.

  5. “The site, NRATV, is a central part of the organization’s messaging apparatus. Since its creation in 2016, it has adopted an increasingly apocalyptic, hard-right tone, warning of race wars, describing Barack Obama as a “fresh-faced flower-child president,” calling for a march on the Federal Bureau of Investigation and comparing journalists to rodents.”

    Hey, when you’re 4/4…

    • 3/4. There ain’t no race wars, despite what some on both sides might dream of. 95% of people don’t give enough a shit for there to be a race war. There are occasional riots in places you definitely don’t want to live, that’s all…

      • Think of them as the racial version of the Cold War. While there are no overt conflicts, the media promotes racial division to keep the news stream flowing.

        • Have to agree with you there. Just check out the financial success stories of Sharpton and Jackson who continually stir the pot to line their pockets. If there were no racial strife they would be out of a job and have to actually be reverends.

        • The MEDIA? Well, obviously, but they’re just dancing to the fiddle the Democrats brung…. er, brought. Racial strife is MEDIA MATTERS’ theme song.

    • That’s pretty much my sentiment as well. It’s kind of like all the discounts I can get with an NRA membership; the only time I learn about them is when the mainstream media or antis make a big deal about it.

    • Lol….it might aswell be another biased propaganda 24/7 news channel. NRATV makes me feel that the NRA is hurting firearm ownership more than it is helping promote it and severely wasting the donations that it has been given.

    • Twenty plus years ago she was helpful to the 2nd amendment. Senility has really taken a toll on her.

  10. It’s almost as if NRA wants to be known as an increasingly apocalyptic, hard-right nut farm like its favorite corrupt, criminal collaborator potus, warning of race wars, calling for a march on the Federal Bureau of Investigation and comparing journalists to rodents. Who will you worship after the justice system has flushed him and his fellow traitors all the way down and out?

    • Them and what army? Vegas oddsmakers have already conceded 2020 to Trump. Get your annotated copy of the Mueller Report yet?

  11. Marion Hammer, the senile old bat didn’t get my vote this last go around. She needs to shut up and step down from the NRA board.
    Life Member

  12. The NRA haven’t gotten a penny from me since they immediately came out in support of a bump stock ban.

  13. I happen to agree. NRATV is a joke and everyone on it is a caricature of the worst kinds of people in the community. I dont dislike Loesch but I do think her disposition could be useful elsewhere in the organization.

  14. Let’s be real here: NRATV does suck. It’s a good idea, but it’s executed in a consistently cringeworthy manner.

    That said, Hammer (and everyone asked for comment by the NYT) should adopt the policy “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” when it comes to internal matters.

    • The Base is slandered and worse from pillar to post on a daily basis by the New Hork Times, the Amazon Post, etc. etc. Let them enjoy a little fistful of salt, a trip and an elbow drop once in a damn while, will you?

  16. “…whether it has strayed too far from the N.R.A.’s core gun-rights mission…”

    That’s right! Stay in your lane NRA! We all know that politicians are a la carte, it’s not like when you vote for one on SJW stuff you get their opinion on guns too! You can have your “single payer”, and soak the rich and simply order a side of gun rights with those things.

  17. Marion Hammer questions the value of NRA TV, and thinks this whole videos on the intertubes thing is a passing fad and we’ll go back to print magazines any day now.

    • Delivered by Pony Express!

      Dana Loesch is one of the few who will stand up to democommies and destroy their evil arguments. She can do it because she used to be liberal until she saw the light. And she does it while looking good, too. If the rest of the NRA leadership had half the conviction and fortitude she did there’d be Constitutional Carry in every state by now. And democommies wouldn’t be able to hide!

  18. “”With her long past service to the NRA, you have to wonder why she’d talk to the Times at all. And why she would offer up a critique like that to the one of the NRA’s most dedicated enemies.”

    WTF is wrong with you John? Honestly someone on TAG need to start editing you. She never talked to the Times. The press release was because the stupid NRATV put Thomas the Tank engine in clan hoods and they were dealing with the fallout.

    It was Willes K. Lee he gave the statement to the Times;

    “After the Thomas the Tank Engine video, he said, Mr. LaPierre appeared “livid and embarrassed” in a meeting with the outreach group. “He apologized to the entire committee and spent hours listening to our concerns.””

    Personalty I think that Dana Loesch should be fired, her job is public relations and as she has no clue.

    • I agree completely. I had to look it up since I hadn’t heard about it….why does NRATV give a damn about a children’s show (that should have probably went off the air years ago)? I dislike the PC culture as much as most, but NRATV is supposed to be about firearms and I do not see how the “diversification” of a toddlers TV show has anything to do with firearms.

      • Because politicians who tend to support PC/SJW positions are statists who also tend to support gun control and those thoughts are inseparable.

        Look at the last election. Democrats won on “healthcare” and a few other issues and then went straight after gun control, a topic they generally avoided during the election cycle.

        Vote for a statist on a single topic and you get the statist on all topics. The fact that the won an election on one set of issues doesn’t mean the ones you care about are safe. Just because they ran on “healthcare and the economy” doesn’t mean they won’t try to shred the BoR once they have power and statistically you can predict who will attack the BoR based on the other positions they hold publicly.

        • I agree with you, but she was ripping into Thomas the Train and SJW’s….not statists (which I also hate). I think the best we could do to preserve gun rights is to try and include all people who wish to own or shoot guns….black, white, gay, straight, TGSQLW, or whatever… all should be included (I hate to use the word diversification but it does apply here). Pulling the Hilary card and calling half of the population deplorable doesn’t help you win anything and sometime that seems to be what the NRA is doing. We have to get away from this Republican vs Democrat mentality when it comes to gun rights…..we need just as many democrat gun owners to vote against limiting gun rights as we do republican gun owners….

        • Kevin:

          While I tend to agree with you I would point out that there’s a difference between being inclusive because you believe in inclusiveness and being forced to be inclusive by government diktat.

          SJW’s most surely are statists. They are not all about equality and inclusiveness in the way you might imagine. SJW’s are all about government mandated equality and inclusiveness, in SJW preferred flavors of both those things, enforced by law. It’s their version of inclusiveness or none at all and either one is at the point of gun held by a government agent.

          You want let the LGBTQ community into the gun community. I agree. Openness and inclusiveness are good for the 2A community. However, you can be quite well assured that the SJW’s don’t feel that the 2A community should be allowed into the LGBTQ community. In fact, you can be rather well assured that most SJW’s hate you.

          The difference is that you want to include people in the gun community while the SJW’s don’t think the gun community should be allowed to exist in the first place.

          These people are not about equality and freedom. They’re about forced compliance with their worldview and the only people they think should have guns are the ones who do the SJW’s bidding at the behest of an all powerful government.

        • we need just as many democrat gun owners to vote against limiting gun rights as we do republican gun owners….

          The Democrats are getting huge amounts of money though gun control advocacy. Gun control it is a campaign money laundering machine. Twenty to twenty five years ago Democrat support of any given gun control effort ran about 70%, but runs 95% today.

    • “.we need just as many democrat gun owners to vote against limiting gun rights as we do republican gun owners….”

      Isn’t that like saying Christian devil worshipers?

      • I know a group who are described as “Christian Taliban”, and it is not the Westboro Baptist Church.

  19. According to tax records, Marion Hammer was paid $206,000 in 2016 for working 5 hours a week. My public school math puts that right at $792.31 per hour.

    Frankly, I question the value of Marion’s pay. In fact, why sugarcoat it? Why in the heck is she making that money?

    The NRA has dozens of lobbyists working their tails off full-time for a tiny fraction of that money.

    And why is she offering criticisms of the NRA to the NY Times?

    John

    • She is not talking to the time, Willes K. Lee is. Love to see you attack him.

      But why don’t you look up how much NRATV is getting.

      • From that anti-gun website TTAG loves to quote:

        “While the exact budget for NRATV is unknown, the gun group’s tax filings show it paid Ackerman $11.7 million for media production and other services”

        (Ackerman Mcqueen media runs NRATV)

    • she did not give a quote to the NYT, she made a general comment they picked up, and one which a LOT of NRA members like myself agree with. NRA TV while a great idea has gone NUTS and is giving ammo the opponents of the Second Amendment.

  20. Does anyone even watch NRATV? I tried it a couple times, but I really didn’t see much that was worth watching. I would much rather watch some Hickok45, Forgotten Weapons, demolition ranch, Military arms channel, Iraqveteran888, or even FPSRussia. These are the shows that the NRATV should be promoting instead of running a 24/7 News like TV channel full of fear mongering. Everything just seems so dreary and depressing on NRATV. I also feel like those I mentioned above are doing far more to spark interest in firearms for the next generation than anything NRA TV is doing.

  21. “The N.R.A.’s core gun-rights mission”

    Which is to collect money, pretend you are doing something then sitting silent while gun rights are restricted and taken away.

      • Indeed, of late the NRA haven’t been setting silent. In fact, they have willingly been making suggestions to aide in the curtailment of 2A rights.

        • more bullshit. The NRA has had a lot of victories. and if it gets fully hobbled the gun control organisations will completely destroy the second amendment as we know it.

        • “more bullshit. The NRA has had a lot of victories. and if it gets fully hobbled the gun control organisations will completely destroy the second amendment as we know it.“

          Denial is a wonderful thing, eh?

  22. I just wonder if the NRA is playing good cop / bad cop deliberately for some reason. Maybe Mrs. Hammer is taking the bad side to let the network be revamped – she’s worked hard for many years to promote 2A and shooting sports. I can’t see her doing this to be mean or vindictive, Maybe she wants the MSM to think she’s gone senile or joined the dark side. I dunno?

    • Is it Marcia Mason’s assessment then that this is some type of 3D chess tactic by the NRA? Yeah, sounds about right.

    • Yes, Dana has a certain appeal. She is witty, attractive and has moxie. A shame that there aren’t more like her, even if she may be a tad unhinged at times (Who isn’t?).

  24. I suppose for Marion this tell-me-vision thing is just so complicated.

    But NRATV could boost their content by licensing “Forgotten Weapons” and C@Rsenal content. Project Lightening has been really good viewing. Taking 7 functioning WW1 light machine guns and putting them through a series of tests. Spoiler, the BAR didn’t win. Placed 4th overall.

    • Yeah, that has been a pretty good series (granted I still think the BAR should have placed better). It is shows like that the NRA should be promoting and not the fear mongering BS that NRATV is.

    • “Forgotten Weapons” and C@Rsenal would not touch the NRATV with a 10 foot pole. Have you EVER heard anything political out of them. And trust me, their views on a lot of things would be ripped apart here.

      • Ian has made passing comments on laws covering designs in the ABW era and the workarounds they forced manufacturers to use. But not everyone wants politics. Even Goebbels knew that making everything overtly political would turn people off.

        • I doubt Ian is a liberal, but them choosing Pornhub as the platform to move to out of protest + removing the Rhodesian FAL videos due to the comment section kinda makes you wonder

      • The current focus on WW1 so far has 94 videos each concerned with one firearm each, plus the current Project Lightening. And there are probably several dozen to go.

        They keep making references to covering WW2 at a later time, which would have greater audience appeal.

        Yes, it is a history and gun nerd show, but it has potential for a niche audience.

  25. If she is giving an interview that is anti NRA to the NY Slimes, perhaps we should vote her off the board. I personally like NRATV. The NRA is sure not going to get its message out via the NY Times…

    • John is LYING to you. She did NOT give a interview with the NY Times. They only picked up on a press release after the dumpster fire the NRATV side lit. Thomas (a nice kid show character) in a clan hood. Really?

  27. I’d rather see positive gun content shows like Top Shot and definately not like “Sons of Guns” or that other one with the skeezy swindler dad. More like Shooting USA with Jim Scouten. Get some competent trainers on board and show some Ayoob content. Cover the big matches/competitions, Bianchi Cup, Quigley, etc. like (or better than) espn would cover basketball. Cover events at the CMP. Cover high power competitions. Cover Appleseed events. Play western movies and TV shows like Paladin. Shows with a positive message golly, put Opie back on and let’s get some 50s family values out there again!

    We’re losing the culture war. Normalize guns in use responsibly. Leave the extremist nutjobbery to the left as much as possible.

    P.s. praise the return of the edit button!!!

    • +++++ A Whole Damn Bunch +++++

      Too many talking head bloviators preaching to the choir. Saying stupid shit with completely negative PR value like the Thomas The Tank Engine “KKK” mess.

      Yes, absolutely, NRATV should have been gun events and shows just as you describe!

    • “We’re losing the culture war. Normalize guns in use responsibly.”

      That culture war is being lost with many POTG, first and foremost. They think that the unalienable individual right to keep and bear arms is somehow a privilege for government to dole out.

  28. For those of you who don’t see what Dana says as the truth, you can stand right in front of me when the shooting starts!!

  29. Well, I watch NRA TV regularly and have never seen or heard any segments like the ones being described by the New York Times. How is it possible that I have never seen them or more importantly, have never even heard of these being aired? Fake news?

  35. I question the value of Marion Hammer,thank you for your service but don’t let the door hit you in your back side.

  36. Dana had her 15 minutes and now searches for relevance by being controversial, not a good look for her.
    She and others (Ms. Hammer) do not serve the best interests of our cause…IMO.
    I realize the wheels have come off the wagon with media but I still believe NRA should be doing 3 things they no longer do well:
    Educate based on factual and not speculative or sensational information.
    Return to the organizations core values.
    Listen to the Membership and not the lobbyists and Board members.

    Oh, 3A = Have a dinner, give him a nice rifle and send Wayne packing.

  37. It’s a valid argument. NRATV runs super right-leaning, which will drive away any left leaning gun supporters in blue States like New York and California, places that desperately need a flag to rally around.

    Hell, NAAGA exists because its founders felt that the NRA was too conservative, despite NRA spokesmen like Colion Noir and Dana Loesch insisting it’s for both sides of the political spectrum.

  38. I love guns and am as staunchly pro 2A as it gets, but I think the little bit of NRA TV programming I’ve seen is painfully lame. It’s not bad because the NYT says it is, it’s just not entertaining. At least, not the stuff I’ve seen.

  39. I remember when the Left put Burt and Ernie into leather BDSM outfits for a gay pride parade. They thought it was funny. I did not. I guess it depends on who’ s ox is gored?

    Having said that I like NRA TV. They have done some very good investigative journalism. The kind that the MSM no longer is doing. Internet video is how you communicate in the 21st century. Not an paper magazine delivered by snail mail.

    Sometimes I wonder if the gun community is afraid of young white women, like Dana Loesch. She is a fighter. And there are many who really seem to be upset with a woman who fights back. You can see how so many are losing their civil rights because they don’t want to get “their hands dirty”. They don’t want to up set certain people. They don’t want to be embarrassed. The gun community has lots of weak people in it.

    From the recent news in Virginia it seems the Left, the Liberals, do indeed support images of democrats wearing KKK outfits.

    Wayne LaPierre when he was younger was a fighter as well. But he and Marion Hammer got old and tired. Younger people like Loesch and Noir are needed to replace the public image of the “old” NRA.

    Trump fights back. And so does Dana Loesch. It seems many are just uncomfortable with the fight. Perhaps the weak just need to stand down. Like the broward county FL. response team. And let those willing to take up the Arms and lead the way into the fight.

  40. I thank Marion Hammer for her past service to the 2nd A community. Her time is past due and has been lacking in recent events. I can’t speak to all NRATV but am a large follower of Cam & Company to keep up on the daily news and events. I was sorely disappointed when it was reduce to a half hour show. As for her comments to the NYT one aw-crap wipes out all previous attaboys. Follow Regan and speak no ill, shut up Marion!

  42. I question the value of Telemundo, and HGTV, because I personally don’t watch them. Doesn’t mean my opinion should be the one to determine “value” of a type of programming.

  43. I see the cowards here at TTAG are now deleting comments because they seem to be in favor of putting KKK hoods on children’s cartoon characters?

    Such is the level of maturity at the cesspool of a website.

    • Then go post your leftist anti-Trump BS on the NYT’s website instead of here and TFB, you 2nd Amendment hating degenerate. #KAG!

  44. NRATV has proven to be a most valuable tool to inform all U.S. citizens on some of the agendas the left would not want most to know. Silencing it would be like removing our first amendment rights and a very detrimental act!

  45. I have never watched NRATV so I can’t comment on its content. Nevertheless, it seems obvious that its audience will consist of:
    1. – the choir
    2. – the anti’s looking for statements they can use against gun rights.

    Perhaps the choir member audience is small. If so, then the programming must generate sufficient additional donations to pay for itself. (Promotions for the “wine of the month club” must produce sufficient commissions to pay for the mailings.) I find it somewhat hard to believe that the choir member audience is kicking in enough donations to pay for the programming.

    Every dollar that gets spent by any organization is at some risk of being misdirected for benign or other reasons. Perhaps the producers are getting paid-off. Or, perhaps the decision makers are merely mistaken in believing that these dollars are well-spent.

    The membership, as well as each board member, is entitled to publicly question every organization program. The organization belongs to its membership; and, it’s the duty of the membership to keep the organization focused on productive activities.

  46. NRA key personnel are used to compromising. The NRA has compromised on virtually every key piece of legislation that have made a mockery out of the 2nd Amendment.

    Some of us got tired of the compromising and moved to Gun Owners of America. THEY haven’t moved a millimeter on ANY gun issues. They were the first to defend bump stocks while the NRA was waffling, as usual.

    • LOL! What a crock of s**t. The anti-gun leftists in America love useful idiots like you talking trash about the NRA because they know if the NRA goes down that pissant do nothing organizations like GOA don’t have power to stop anything. NRA was at my state Capitol a few weeks ago in ND lobbying against a Red Flag law that was defeated, was GOA or any other “pro-2A” Org there? nope. Sit and spin you clueless a$$hole!

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