For the second year in a row, Michael Bloomberg’s twinned gun control groups, Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety, have protested the National Rifle Association’s Annual Meeting and Exhibits from an obscure corner of the host city.

It was… sad.

Despite claims that they were bringing 400 supporters to rally against the NRA, the small group precariously perched on the slope of Riverfront Park was much less than half of the that number, and probably close to the 120-150 attendees. The only difference between this year and last year is that there seemed to be fewer media in attendance this time around. Is the bloom off Bloomberg’s rose?

On the upside, the small crowd left shots of the waterfront architecture nearly uncluttered.

Moms Demand attempted to keep the time and location of their protest very hushed up, in an almost paranoid bid to keep the thousands of NRA attendees from coming down to view them as a curiosity.

To the best I could determine, a handful of NRA attendees still came from the Annual Meeting to view the “Moms Demands Empty Lawn” show. Among them were a pair of AR-15 pistol open-carriers who had a short conversation with a local officer (the sidewalks are considered part of the park, and the park is a theoretical “gun-free zone”) before walking back to the convention.

The officers I spoke with (who were hanging out with one of Shannon Watts’ security detail and her chauffeured SUV driver) noted that they respected the First Amendment rights of Moms Demand Action. At the same time, their body language suggested that they’d rather be almost anywhere else.

Can you blame them?