State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe speaks as he opens the 10th annual Second Amendment Action Day rally he organized on the steps of the state Capitol Tuesday.

HARRISBURG — A few hundred gun rights activists brought their message to what has become an annual event at the state Capitol, urging lawmakers on Tuesday to protect their right to keep and own firearms and to widen legal protections.

The crowd at the Second Amendment Action Day reacted strongly to warnings about threats to gun rights, as speakers peppered their remarks with references to northeastern states, President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“I feel that they’re trying to take my gun rights away from us,” said Harry Norton, a retired over-the-road trucker from New Brighton. “I’m here to kind of protect that.”

Kim Stolfer, with Firearm Owners Against Crime, called gun control an abridgment of freedom that makes people less safe.

Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Washington, described her own proposal to eliminate the states’ instant background check for gun purchases, leaving only the federal check system.

“Sometimes the whole system crashes and we are left without the ability to exercise our Second Amendment right,” Bartolotta said.

Connie Moniot, who came to the rally from her home in Butler, held up a sign that read: “Our Guns Today/Our Bible Next.”

The Second Amendment is not in danger in Pennsylvania, argued Shira Goodman, executive director of CeaseFirePA, a group working to reduce gun violence.

“We are concerned that this draws such a crowd of people and so many representatives try and make an appearance, when really they could be spending this time working on things that actually make us safer,” Goodman said in a phone interview.