The journalist Mike Spies is known for in-depth investigations of polarizing social and political issues, particularly gun control and campaign finance. Since 2012, Spies has contributed more than a dozen pieces to The New Yorker, including a report on the aftermath of the Pulse night-club massacre and an exposé of misleading efforts to shape the public image of Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association. Spies is currently a senior writer at The Trace, where he won a 2019 New York Press Club Award for his coverage of the N.R.A. (Early in his career, he worked as a New Yorker fact checker; he also happens to be one of my most impressive former interns.) In 2018, Spies published a profile in The New Yorker of Marion Hammer, the N.R.A.'s Florida lobbyist and, previously, the first woman to serve as the organization's president. At the time of the profile, Florida lawmakers had enacted some thirty bills crafted by Hammer, including one of the nation's earliest concealed-carry statutes and the first Stand Your Ground law, which was later used to justify the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teen-ager. Hammer's bills "set a precedent that can then be exported to other states," an A.C.L.U. official explains to Spies, who details the tactical expertise and fearsome reputation that make the lobbyist so effective. "Unlike elected officials, who are limited to eight years in office, Hammer takes a long view of the legislative process," Spies writes. "In the past few years, the [Florida] Senate Judiciary Committee has been a persistent nuisance. . . . Hammer sees such developments as temporary setbacks. 'Eventually, everything passes,' she has said." As the piece progresses, we witness the complex legislative maneuvers that allow the gun lobby to execute its agenda, despite growing carnage and misgivings, even among certain Republicans. In one telling interview, a Florida legislator remarks that some G.O.P. lawmakers had expressed reservations about Stand Your Ground, but ultimately voted for the bill in order to appease Hammer and her organization, choosing to believe that the law wouldn't engender any real-world consequences. Layer by layer and detail by detail, the article grips us, illuminating how the gun lobby goes on to achieve even more extreme legislation. In the end, Spies reveals just how easily our civic processes can turn politicians into proxies—and, yet more grievously, individuals into statistics.
—Erin Overbey, archive editor
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