By Todd Strelow
I hear many gun owners saying we need to do something to affect the outcome of the next election, but I don't see any of them actually doing anything. Case in point: I recently attended a gun auction that is periodically held at an auction house in my home county. There was a representative from a gun rights group and a representative from a local gun club there, each had a table set up to sell raffle tickets. Neither of them had voter registration forms at their tables. With the auction house's permission and assistance, I set up a table and registered five new pro-gun voters. At the next gun auction, both of those organizations were there again; neither had voter registration forms at their tables. I registered three more pro-gun voters. Selling raffle tickets is fine, but it doesn't get pro-gun people to the polls.
The time has come to stop talking and start acting. There shouldn't be a single gun related event where there isn't a table to register voters. If your pro-gun organization is setting up a table to take donations (remember selling raffle tickets is illegal in NYS), make sure you have a stack of voter registration forms on the table. Take a book of stamps, and offer to mail in the completed forms. Don't assume people will register on their own, many of them won't. Some people, especially those who haven't voted yet, don't understand how easy it is to register. Don't assume someone else is working on registering pro-gun voters, my experience has shown me they aren't. If you belong to a gun club, get your club involved. If not, act on your own. Get a stack of voter registration forms from your county Board of Elections office (they're free). Visit every gun store in your county and ensure they have a stack of voter registration forms on their counter top. Don't forget the archery stores, they're on our side too! A friend and I did this in our home county, it took only two hours to visit six stores, and all of them agreed to let us put out voter registration forms at their locations. By sticking to the gun/archery stores, we ensured we were only registering likely pro-gun voters. We were invited to two upcoming outdoor events sponsored by two of the archery shops in our county, to set up a voter registration table.
If you teach a sportsmen's education class, devote 10 or 15 minutes to the importance of being politically active. While many of the students are too young to vote, they won't be forever. And these folks are our future! I put a stack of voter registration forms out in the back of the classroom, with the other course materials.
Two key points to keep in mind, and to point out to people. 1 - If someone has moved since the last time they voted, they need to re-register. 2- If someone is 17, but will be 18 before the next general election (this November 8th), they can and should register to vote now.
Even if you don't like the current candidates, I encourage you to vote and to get your friends and family to do so too. A vote for the "lesser of two evils" is better than allowing the candidate who is the most opposed to the Second Amendment to be elected. And keep in mind that you will also have the opportunity to vote for pro-gun politicians at all levels of government (town, county, state, and federal), as well as ballot initiatives, not just the presidency is at stake this election cycle.
We should continue to encourage our elected representatives to vote in a pro-gun manner. We should continue to ensure our voices are heard. We should continue to endeavor to elect only pro-gun people at every level of government. But we should also take action to ensure that as many pro-gun voters as possible are registered to vote, and actually do so. Registering new pro-gun voters takes a little effort, but isn't it worth a little bit of effort to retain your Second Amendment rights?
