Kent State gun rally draws hundreds from both sides

to carry guns on Ohio public university campuses.

Bennett, a recent Kent State graduate, has tried to position herself as the foil to David Hogg, a Florida student who survived the Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in February and has gone on to demand gun control.

Bennett — known for her provocative pictures with guns — has ended up on Fox News and in national media representing the opposite view.

“I’m a very small girl,” Bennett told the crowd Saturday. “Our rights don’t end because we step on their property.”

About 2:35 p.m. Saturday — after reminding people to keep their handguns holstered and their rifles in slings — Bennett began leading her group toward Summit Street and the campus.

Protesters, some hiding their faces behind scarves and hoodies, who had gathered on Risman Plaza, began heading toward Summit Street.

“Go home, you Commies!” one of the gun advocates shouted as protesters approached. Law-enforcement officials worked to control a crowd as protesters and gun-rights advocates squared off on the Kent State University campus Saturday. No one was seriously hurt and four were arrested.

Protesters shouted back as drones and a police helicopter whirred overhead looking for flash points of trouble.

Hundreds of law-enforcement personnel tried to build a wall of officers between the groups throughout the afternoon.

Laura and David Hill were part of the opposition.

“I’m terrified of open carry on campus,” Laura Hill said.

Tension crested between the gun advocates and

protesters at Bowman Hall and the Lefton Esplanade.

Kent State issued a campus alert advising people to avoid the area, which is about a two-minute walk from the site of the university’s May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard shooting that killed four and wounded nine.

That happened during another cultural divide, when the country was split over the Vietnam War.

Bennett told a Beacon Journal reporter earlier this week that Kent’s campus was the perfect location to talk about gun rights, calling the shootings in 1970 “government tyranny.”

If students and protesters would have had firearms, she said, the shootings would have never happened.

Alan Canfora, one of the nine shot in 1970, said Bennett has it backward.

“The primary lesson of the 1970 Kent State tragedy is nonviolent conflict resolution should be maximized to prevent bloodshed,” he said.

Kent State President Beverly Warren praised law enforcement on Saturday, which included hundreds of officers from area police departments, campus police and the State Highway Patrol.

No one was seriously injured, the campus wasn’t damaged and four people were arrested. Each faces charges of disorderly conduct, and one faces an additional charge of assaulting a police officer.

Early reports indicated that all were protesting the gun walk and none of those arrested was a student, Kent officials said.