CONCORD, N.H. – With dueling chants, what was supposed to be a respectful presentation of the names of those lost to gun violence since the Sandy Hook shootings in Newtown, CT, turned into bedlam on June 18 at the Statehouse.

The No New Names bus tour, sponsored by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, was parked outside the plaza, to read the names of thousands of victims of gun violence and hold a rally later in the day. ALSO READ: Police Taser Gun Rights Advocate at Anti-Gun Violence Rally

AND: No More Names Anti-Gun Violence Bus Tour Visits Concord At 9 a.m., clergy members, including two from Concord, began reading names of the more than 6,000 who have died since the Newton shootings.

Later, at 3:30 p.m., one gun control advocate, John Cantin, dropped of a list of the names of those killed by guns at U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte's Manchester office, pressing the case that the country needs better background checks. At 5 p.m., anti-gun violence advocates stopped reading the names and began to talk about why they were there.

Judy Stadtman, the co-founder of NH Project for Safer Communities, of Portsmouth, said the event was held to memorialize and mourn those that died, deaths that were preventable, had there been laws that kept guns out of the hands of dangerous and irresponsible people.

"The one thing that we can know for certain is that the epidemic level of gun violence in the United States is not an inevitable, naturally occurring feature of contemporary civilization," she said. "It's a form of death and destruction invented and practiced exclusively by humans, using weapons designed by humans, to increase our capacity to kill."

About two minutes into her speech, as Stadtman began to criticize Congress and Ayotte for rejecting new laws that she said would ensure that only those who were qualified and intended to do no harm would own guns, counter protesters began to boo. Stadtman asked members of her side to close in ranks in a circle. Protesters began to yell at each other with Stadtman and others chanting "background checks" and the other side chanting "freedom" and later, "go home."