In an Election This Important, Why Are There 10 Million Gun Owners Not Registered to Vote?

Does any one election deserve more attention than another?  I’m not entirely sure. I’m of the belief that they are all pretty damn important. Voting is what gives each and every one of us a voice. It’s an unalienable right everyone ought to exercise.

For starters, I want to make it clear that I am not writing this in an attempt to persuade any of you into voting for one candidate or another. As an immigrant from Canada, it’s not something I am even privy to participate in as I am still working through the (legal) immigration process myself.

It was a social media piece that led me here. One with a chilling statistic that stated that here in this country, we have over 10 million gun owners that are not registered to vote. Now I realize that not everyone who registers votes and not all of the unregistered don’t vote, but in an election as seemingly contentious as this one, I, along with others, feel compelled to bring it to the attention of our unique niche.

Despite record-breaking voting turnouts in 2020, the amount of Americans who cast a ballot that year still only amounted to ~66 percent of the voting population. According to the pros at the Census Bureau and Pew Research, that’s a pretty good showing - and in many ways it is.

Now, I am of the belief that no group of voters and their issues matters more than the next group of voters and their issues. I believe that everyone ought to have a say as to how their country is run and they should exercise that right every chance they get. But why then, does a group such as ours, who in many ways, is under attack, choose to stay silent?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I personally know a lot of the folks from our industry and follow many others. And let me tell you, soft-spoken is not an adjective I would use to describe them. As outdoorsmen and women, I’d say we are exactly the opposite, or at least it would seem that way.

When it comes to trampling our public lands, it’s us that stands up. When it comes to lobbying for the proper management of wildlife, it’s us who has their back. When it comes to shouldering the responsibility and paying a bit more tax on the goods we buy to put money back into the land and resources we treasure so much, it’s us that ponies up.

And we do it happily. Proudly.

The question then becomes, why, in an election year such as this, are there more than 10 million of us not registered to vote in our federal election. For a group so used to standing up for what is right and protecting what we hold dear, it’s surprising to hear that we might be so passive when it comes to electing our leaders.

The truth is, no matter what your views on the 2020 election might be, the Electoral College was what put the Biden administration in the White House and it did so by a narrow margin of just 44,000 votes spread across three states. The same was true for President Trump in 2016 as he secured his victory almost as narrowly by 80,000 votes across six states.

I can’t pretend to predict the future, but I can tell you with a certain level of confidence that 2024 will be decided by an equally close margin.

Big Swinging D*cks

Let’s talk about swing states. 

When it comes to winning the presidency, there are seven key states, also known as battleground states, that can ultimately decide the election for either side. It is here where candidates spend a lot of time trying to build a base of voters that will ‘swing’ the election in their favor. 

Those states are Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Nevada and Arizona. As stated above, just 44,000 votes in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin alone separated Biden and Trump from a tie in the Electoral College in 2020.

In what many are calling the swingiest of swing states this year, Pennsylvania tops the list of battleground states with the highest number of non-registered gun owners. With over 515,000 gun owners and hunters not registered in the Keystone State alone, just 10 percent of those potential voters have the ability to swing this election either way. 

Michigan and North Carolina are the next worst-offenders, with over 370,000 unregistered gun owners in each of those two states. Georgia and Wisconsin are not far behind, with both of those states combining for nearly 700,000 firearms owners unregistered to vote. Arizona and Nevada look to be the least of the problem, but still represent over 190,000 of those unregistered to vote - no small number when it comes to tipping points.

So, if for some reason you are reading this and are still kinda-sorta feeling apathetic about your vote, the fact that over 2.1 million unregistered hunters and gun owners are spread across these key states should serve to change that.

Disappointing showings

What about other key states? You know, the ones teeming with hunters, anglers, outdoorsmen and sport shooters?  Surely they are all shored up when it comes to voting, right?

Wrong.

Some of the biggest surprises I found were in states in which I didn’t believe had any problems. Let’s take the red-hot state of Florida. In the state I call home, there are over 659,000 of our hunters and gun owners not registered to vote. 

During the last election, 66 percent of the 17 million registered voters cast a vote in the Lone Star State. And in a state where everything is bigger, including voter turnout in 2020, there still remains a whopping 663,985 hunters and gun owners not registered to vote. 

The great state of Tennessee also experienced record turnout in 2020, much like Texas and many others, but again, is showing a massive number of outdoorsmen and women left unregistered to vote. With over 311,000 of those individuals in Tennessee, combining the three aforementioned states together amounts to a total of 1,634,793 possible voters.

Outside of those states, Ohio has over 625,000 gun owners who didn’t register to vote, and Minnesota and Illinois combine for nearly the same amount. Hell, even Cali has a half a million hunters and gun owners who are not registered.

The Big Picture

In the words of Tony D’Amato, it seems as though the inches we need are all around us.

During an episode of Gabriella Hoffman’s podcast, Vote4America advisor Baker Leavitt revealed that the sentiment from gun owners the organization has been in touch with is that of complete disenchantment. According to Leavitt, many believe that “My vote doesn’t count, the system is rigged.”

The question then becomes, how can we change the minds of a group of folks so embittered by the idea of voting? Simply put, it sounds like we need to reinstall some level of confidence in the voting process here in America. 

And how the hell do we do that?  By voting. 

Doing the opposite is simply conceding to the other side - whichever side that might be. And that, the last time I checked, is un-fucking-American. 

With just 30 days left until election day, the question no longer seems to be “who are you going to vote for?” but rather, “Are you planning to vote at all?”

For the love of this great country, I hope you do what I can’t and choose to exercise the latter of those two statements. It’s your right, after all.