A Bristol Virginia man sparked a statewide political reaction after he said he heard the state Senate’s majority leader insult rural gun owners while standing in a public elevator.
"He turns to his companion and says, ‘You can tell we’re debating a gun bill today. Half the cast of "Deliverance" is in town,’ " said John Pierce, a local gun-rights activist who was in Richmond to lobby the General Assembly against a bill to close the so-called gun-show loophole.
"I was absolutely floored. ... I think what you’re seeing is bigotry aimed at rural voters and the issues that they tend to support," Pierce said.
"Deliverance" is a 1972 film based on the novel by James Dickey in which Atlanta businessmen encountered a backwoods Appalachian culture on a canoe trip in the north Georgia mountains, where rape and murder ensue.
Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax, did not return calls seeking comment Thursday.
The senator’s elevator comment on Monday has been buzzing through conservative Web sites since Wednesday, when Pierce said he sent out an e-mail alert and a news release.
Thursday morning, Pierce was on a Richmond radio show to discuss the incident.
Trey Yeatts, executive producer of Richmond’s Morning News with Jimmy Barrett, said he wanted to ask Saslaw about the incident, but Saslaw hadn’t returned his calls.
"From the listeners that we’ve heard from, it seems that most people are, I guess you’d say, incensed," Yeatts said, "by a lack of apparent respect for [gun-rights supporters], not just in his district but within the entire commonwealth."
According to Washingtonpost.com, Saslaw responded to questions with the remark, "How do they know I was referring to them and not the other side? ... Some of those people must have one hell of an inferiority complex."
Late Thursday, the Republican Party of Virginia issued a news release asking Saslaw to explain who exactly he was insulting.
"When a member of the Virginia General Assembly makes a comment like that, I thought that it would be appropriate for him to explain himself," spokesman Josh Noland said in an interview.
"Is he meaning the supporters of these stricter [gun] laws are like the cast of ‘Deliverance’ or the people that want to protect gun rights are like the cast of ‘Deliverance,’ and what did he mean by that?"
Pierce, a software developer who lives on a farm outside Bristol, said he’d like to see an apology – and as of Thursday afternoon he said 1,896 voters had written to their legislators asking for the same.
He’d also like to see Saslaw held accountable by his own party for the comment.
"I believe that Sen. Saslaw and many of those who oppose gun ownership truly believe that those who believe in the right to keep and bear arms, those who hunt, those who come from a rural background, are somehow less deserving of respect than the elite urbanites that they consider themselves and their peers to be," Pierce said.
"I think that the goal is not so much to get Sen. Saslaw to apologize but to get the Democratic leadership, many of whom are very pro-gun and do a lot of great things for rural Virginia, to rein him in and tell him that’s not acceptable."
dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement