Headline: Gun enthusiasts outnumber protesters Saturday at Summit County Fairgrounds

_{(Image source: FreeImages.com/Gary Cowles)}

The Akron Beacon-Journal reported recently that a small group of protesters standing outside a gun show at the Summit County Fairgrounds waving signs opposing assault weapons and supporting tighter gun controls were dwarfed by the dozens waiting in line and the hundreds already inside.

From the article:

“Did you see all of those Hillary Clinton voters out front?” one man in the line asked, referring to the protesters.

“Well, there ain’t no Hillary supporters in this line, I can tell you that,” another man answered, drawing chuckles from those nearby.

About 11:30 a.m., a Cuyahoga Falls man leaving the gun show tried to bridge the chasm separating the groups.

Jim Lunsford, 68, approached a protester from Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron holding a brown cardboard sign with “End gun Violence” scrawled across the front.

“There’s no gun violence in there,” Lunsford told the man. “Spend $6 and go take a look.”

Lunsford said he retired in 2012 after working 23 years as an officer at Cuyahoga Hills Juvenile Correctional Facility in Cuyahoga County.

“Take your message, take your ministry into the inner-city neighborhoods where kids, black and white, have no father. These kids are the ones shooting at one another,” Lunsford told the protesters.

“That’s where you can make a difference,” he said, “not here where people are following the law.”

According to the article, the tiny protest was organized by the Summit County Progressive Democrats.

In 2013, Michael Bloomberg's now-defunct Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) and President Obama's Organizing For Action (OFA) staged an event in Columbus at which protestors were supposed to call on Ohio Senator Rob Portman to support "common sense" gun control. Buckeye Firearms Association brought out 100 people to counter-protest. Bloomberg and Obama brought out five.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, BFA PAC Vice Chairman, and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.