Thousands of people turned out in Florida to support the flying of the Confederate flag on Sunday.

CBS News estimated that as many as 2,000 vehicles, many of them motorcycles and trucks adorned with the Civil-War-era flag, were on hand for the demonstration and to lend support a recent Marion County decision to continue displaying the flag on government ground.

At one point, shots were fired in the area of the protests, but no injuries were reported. Several media outlets also reported many of the protesters wore shirts sporting such phrases as "heritage not hate" and openly talked about defending Southern traditions. A replica of the General Lee car from "The Dukes of Hazard" television show led the procession.

"It's a history thing," said protester Rick Hart. "The flag is also a military flag. It's not a race symbol."

The Florida demonstration played out weeks after a deadly church shooting in South Carolina where a 21-year-old white supremacist sympathizer walked into a historically black church and opened fire on a congregation of unsuspecting Bible worshippers -- killing nine including the church's pastor.

The incident sparked a national debate on the issue of flying the flag on state grounds. Last Friday, South Carolina removed the flag from an official flagpole near its Statehouse.

Authorities in the state have also charged Dylann Roof in connection with the church shooting and a search of his website shows him posing alongside the Confederate battle flag in several pictures.

None of that has been enough to stop leaders in Tennessee from recently announcing the state will support the birthday of Confederate army general and one-time Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Nationally, lawmakers in Congress are now debating a measure aimed at prohibiting the flag from being displayed at federal cemeteries.