CLEVELAND -- Protesters in Cleveland are using the seventh anniversary of the deadly Columbine High School shooting to call for decreased access to guns.

Community activists gathered Thursday at Margaret Ireland School to level various charges against state lawmakers, saying too many Ohioans are continuing to die because of the easy access to guns.

They find it hard to believe that it's still happening seven years after the massacre that left 12 students and a teacher dead, reported NewsChannel5's Debora Lee.

According to school security expert Ken Trump, many other potential school shootings have been thwarted by students reporting threats to authorities. An example of this is an incident at Eastlake's North High School last year, in which authorities were alerted to a student's threats.

Police also intervened when threats were made against Strongsville High School students last year.

In another incident, a Broadview Heights man foiled a plot against yet another school after reading a threat on the Internet.

"I talked to some friends at work. They said, 'You know, you probably should call because if you wake up and find out a school shooting happened, it would be on your conscience.' That's when I decided to call the authorities," said Jason Scherer.

But despite all of the efforts to prevent another Columbine, non-fatal school-related shootings are up. There have been 77 so far this year, compared to 52 last year and 68 the year before.

"School safety funding has been cut. We're in an intense competition for time because of the pressure to improve test scores, and we tend to be complacent," said Trump.

Trump said schools can't afford to be complacent, but must be prepared.

Protesters said some laws and bills now pending, like one that lets schools teach kids how to shoot guns, will increase gun violence and turn communities into war zones.