They might as well have been on different planets, these side-by-side-counter-demonstrators outside Clyde’s Sports Shop, in Lansdowne on Saturday.

Gathering around a vintage combat-green armored reconnaissance vehicle and a troop carrier, about 175 of Clyde’s pro-gun supporters, many wearing camouflage and waving American flags, spoke ardently about the Second Amendment, as a DJ played “God Bless America” and The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”

“You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!” thundered Russ Tenhoff, who identified himself as the webmaster for Clyde’s and the former pastor of the Safe Harbors Ministry, in Brooklyn. The crowd cheered.

Meanwhile, a couple hundred yards away in a vacant grassy lot, Clyde’s critics — including some of Baltimore’s most prominent religious leaders — were in a much less festive mood.

The interfaith group of about 75 people sang “Let There Be Peace on Earth,” heard from mothers whose children were killed by guns and repeated their plea that owner Clyde Blamberg do more to prevent guns from his shop from winding up in criminals’ hands.

“Earlier today I shared the grief of the family of Troy Thomas … who last Saturday was gunned down outside his home after what was apparently a relatively minor dispute, probably with a gun purchased illegally somewhere in this country,” said the Rev. Douglas I. Miles, of Koinonia Baptist Church in Baltimore.

“This nonsense must come to an end! We call on Clyde to Sign the Code!” Miles thundered, as the group joined in, chanting: “Sign the Code!”

Best practices for gun sellers?

The code to which they referred is a ten-point voluntary Code of Conduct intended to prevent “straw purchases,” guns bought by people with clean records who then pass them to others who use them to commit crimes.

Clyde’s, a half-century-old hunting and fishing shop located just outside the city, was targeted because a 2008 Abell Foundation study tracing guns used to commit crimes in Baltimore found the highest number (among any shop still in business) came from Clyde’s.

The Saturday prayer service near Clyde’s is the latest action in an ongoing campaign by this interfaith coalition of Baltimore religious leaders who have affiliated with the group “Heeding God’s Call.”

The Heeding God’s Call coalition in Maryland includes the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council, the Baltimore Interfaith Coalition and the Ecumenical Leaders Group.

Politely rebuffed when they sent a small delegation into Clyde’s shop in October, the group has pledged to return periodically with these public actions – carrying signs, singing, praying — until Blamberg changes his mind. But the ministers and bishops, outnumbered at least two-to-one Saturday, weren’t about to confront the pumped-up crowd in the Clyde’s parking lot.

“That would not be a good idea,” said Bryan Miller, director of public advocacy for the Philadelphia-based Heeding God’s Call.

Many of the Clyde’s supporters, including the owner’s wife, Jean Blamberg, seemed disappointed when they realized Heeding God’s Call wouldn’t be picketing directly in front of the store, as they did in October.

“I waved to ’em, I said ‘C”mon over,’” she said, chuckling. “We wouldn’t do anything except talk to them, maybe laugh a little.”

Giving victims of gun violence a face

Facing across the grass toward Clyde’s (but too far away for the pro-gun group to hear) speakers tried to personalize the problem. Rev. Hal Hayek, dean of Baltimore’s Cathedral of the Incarnation (representing Episcopal Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton), read the names of children who died from guns this year in the city. Kevin Andre Brooks, principal of Success Academy, in Baltimore, talked about young people he knew who had been shot down.

Blamberg “needs to care about, not just what’s going on in Lansdowne, but in Baltimore City,”  Brooks said.

A group of mothers whose sons were shot and killed said the proliferation of guns in Baltimore means arguments that might have been settled years ago with fists are now settled with guns, with deadly results.

“Back in the day, when we fought we wouldn’t speak to each other for a few days. Now, they all have guns,” said Alice Oaks, of northeast Baltimore, who lost her son in 2008. “There are so many guns out there. The ones doing the shootings all know each other. If (Clyde’s) would just stop supplying them . . . ”

Gracie, George who lost her son Phillip Holmes to a street shooting earlier this year, said she studied the Code of Conduct and thinks it’s not unreasonable to ask Blamberg to follow it.

“You haven’t got a problem signing it,” she said, looking toward the shop, “if you’ve been keeping your store a good store.”

Taking it personally

Customers, and Blamberg, maintain that Clyde’s has been “a good store.”

“If they were doing stuff crooked they wouldn’t be here,” Tom Hier said, noting that he’d been coming to the more than 50-year-old store since high school days in the 1980s.

Gary Johnson Sr., of Severn, a lifelong hunter who said he has bought a shotgun, rifle and bows from Clyde’s, agreed. “It’s just another way to come at us, to try to take our guns away.”

“They’re barking up the wrong tree,” said Chuck Kief, of Middle River. “They need to go back to their own neighborhoods and take care of their problems where they start.”

One of the provisions of the code is for gun sellers to videotape all purchases. Blamberg said he has a security video camera set up, but doesn’t record all sales. (Heeding God’s Call has offered to help pay any extra costs for videotaping.)

Some customers, including Russ Tenhoff, said they worry that videotapes “would get into the wrong hands,” possibly leading someone to steal their gun.

As long as criminals have guns, “law-abiding people must have them,” Tenhoff said. “If I want to be at a restaurant protecting my family, I want to carry a weapon. If  I’m in the mall, I want to carry a weapon.”

(Several people at the rally said they have permits to carry weapons but weren’t carrying any at the event. George Hopkins, the Howard County high school teacher and hobbyist who brought the military vehicles, said the 30 caliber machine guns on them were de-activated.)

Blamberg’s critics say the code is not designed to stop law-abiding people from getting guns, just to prevent illegal guns from adding to Baltimore’s bloodshed. Among the code’s provisions is participation in a computerized crime gun trace log and alert system.

Later, serving post-rally customers in his shop, Clyde was asked, why not use the gun trace log?

“What would it prove, if it turned out one gun a person bought here was used in a crime?” he replied, pointing out that guns can be stolen.

Well, what if five guns a buyer purchased were traced to crimes?

Blamberg smiled and didn’t answer.