Buncombe County sheriff's candidate R. Daryl Fisher has apologized for implying he’s willing to kill gun owners in order to seize their firearms.
Well, he kind of apologized. He’s really sorry you heard what he said and assumed he meant it, but not that he said it in the first place.
The story goes like this. A video went viral earlier this week of Fisher, who's running for sheriff in North Carolina, saying he wants to ban the sale of all “high capacity magazines” along with a whole slew of other gun regulations, adding that he’s perfectly O.K. with the notion of prying guns out of people’s “cold, dead hands.”
“You’ve heard people say, ‘You’ll have to pry my guns from my cold, dead hands.’ O.K.” Fisher said in the video to applause and laughter from his audience.
Here's the clip:
The Asheville Citizen-Times is reporting that Fisher has apologized(ish), but said the whole controversy isn't really his fault.
"Unfortunately, a one-sentence clip from that meeting has been taken out of context and circulated on social media with a false interpretation of what I actually said," Fisher said in a statement. "Anyone who watches the video in its entirety can see the truth and understand that my response was reasonable."
"I wish folks had not taken out of context what was said because statements saying I will kill people to take their guns is completely false," Fisher continued. "I want to let my supporters know that I am still in the race and people that know my true character know what is being said about me is completely wrong."
While it may be true that Fisher has no intention of killing people to take their guns (or at least, I certainly hope he doesn’t), when you bluntly say you’re perfectly happy with the idea of prying firearms from gun owners’ “cold, dead hands,” you’re implying the exact opposite.
The problem isn’t other people’s ears, Fisher. It's your mouth.