OfficerBlueBuncombe County, NC – Sheriff candidate R. Daryl Fisher made a “joke” about taking people’s guns from their “cold dead hands,” which has stirred outrage among firearm owners (video below.)
Fisher says that he was asked to speak about gun legislation on Mar. 7.
It’s not clear what group he was speaking to, but from the videos, it appeared to be a group that had little or no knowledge about firearms, and appeared to be proponents for gun control.
During the talk, which was recorded, Fisher said that he was a proponent of “common-sense” gun legislation.
He went on to explain that his “common-sense” legislation included the banning of “high capacity” magazines on both rifles and pistols, banning weapons designed to be used by the military, raising the age to purchase a firearm to 21, requiring firearm qualifications before people can carry guns, only allowing people to carry the weapon that they trained with, and banning anything that increases a firearm’s rate of fire.
He also admitted that gun buybacks weren’t very successful because people turn in guns that are in poor condition or damaged.
Immediately after making that statement, he said that if he’s elected sheriff, he wants to have regular gun buybacks.
As Fisher talked about banning guns, he brought up, “What if people already have them?”
“Don’t buy into these scare tactics,” Fisher said. “You’ve heard people say, ‘you’ll have to pry my guns from my cold dead hands.’… OK.”
Fisher then explained that it would actually be unlawful for the government to take guns away from people who purchased the guns before a ban.
After video of his talk spread, he started receiving backlash, prompting him to release the following statement on Friday:
This post is for all of the people who have posted false information about my position on proposing sensible gun legislation as a candidate for Buncombe County Sheriff. As a citizen, human being, and Candidate for Sheriff, I would like to recommend the following legislation:
Ban the sale of high capacity magazines;
Ban the sale of any mechanism that will allow a weapon to fire in rapid succession;
Raise the age to purchase any weapon to age 21;
And ensure proper background checks are done for purchase permits.
These are sensible measures and are a big step at protecting our communities. Stop pointing fingers and bring solid and sensible solutions instead of spreading false information and propaganda.
It’s not clear what the “false information” is on his gun legislation proposal, but his statement excludes some of his voices positions on gun control.
He failed to address the “cold dead hands” comment at that time.
As the backlash continued through Saturday, he deleted critical social media comments and blocked the posters from continuing to comment.
Then then released a second statement which said, in part:
If you want to know what my statements were, listen to all of the videos in their entirety. There is one statement that many up to now have taken offense to. That statement starts out with language similar to, “Don’t believe the scare tactics,” and I say that some gun enthusiast might say, “You will have to pry my gun from my cold dead hands.” This is also a movie quote. The crowd laughed and I made a joke.
I admit the joke was a mistake and I should not have joked. But I go on to relay that the government cannot take away any guns or any items that were legally sold before any new laws take effect. To do this would be unconstitutional because that would constitute what is called an ex post facto law. Responsible gun owners have nothing to worry about. We have to do something different because what has been done is not working.
You can see the video with his statements below. His “joke” starts around the 2:45 mark:
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