Virginia ? Carrying loaded pistols and unloaded rifles, dozens of gun-rights activists got as close as they could Monday to the nation’s capital while still bearing arms and delivered what they said was a simple message: Don’t tread on me.

Hundreds of like-minded but unarmed counterparts carried out a separate rally in the nation’s capital.

The gun-carrying protesters in Virginia rallied on national park land, which is legal thanks to a new law signed by President Barack Obama that allows guns in national parks. Organizers said it’s the first armed rally in a national park since the law passed.

The District of Columbia’s strict gun laws, however, generally make it illegal to carry a handgun, so rally participants there were unarmed.

Among the speakers in Virginia was former Alabama Minuteman leader Mike Vanderboegh, who has been denounced in recent weeks after calling for citizens to throw bricks through the windows of local Democratic party headquarters across the country. Several such incidents occurred after Vanderboegh issued his call.

Vanderboegh said the broken windows are a wake-up call that many people feel threatened by an expanding federal government.

“We are done backing up. Not one more inch,” Vanderboegh said to cheers, after telling the crowd that for too long Americans have acquiesced at the loss of liberty.