The Great Middletown Firearm and Knife Show kicked off this morning at the Orange County Fairgrounds. 

Some residents in the area say in the wake of recent mass shootings, the event is too close to Middletown High School.

One former educator believes people would still come to the gun show if it was held somewhere else.

“Guns can be a positive thing because they're good for hunting and good for the military and good for the police to defend the country,” Robin Derito says. “But I also think, put in the wrong hands...then they can be detrimental to society."

The Middletown School superintendent and the show’s organizer did not give a comment on the gun show's location.