Jennifer Zahrn of the National Rifle Association notes a sad historical truth: only about 40% of eligible voters will head to the polls tomorrow to cast their votes in elections that will often be swung by the smallest of margins.

As gun owners, it would be easy to merely point out that our Second Amendment rights are under assault.

After all, billionaires such as Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Michael Bloomberg have spent millions building fake grassroots organizations like Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action to agitate for their citizen-controlling agendas. They’re funding backdoor gun registry initiatives like Washington’s I-594, which, if passed, will turn normal gun owner activities like trying out a friend’s new shotgun, borrowing a rifle to go hunting, or loaning a relative a handgun for self-defense into crimes.

They’re actively pouring millions of dollars into electing radical collectivists to undermine your right to defend your family from criminals and tyrants, and dictate not only what you may own as your private property, but where you may have the basic human right to self-defense.

But voting goes beyond “just” our Second Amendment rights, as important as they are.

Since the cold morning of April 19, 1775, brave men and women have risked—and have often given—their lives in order to ensure that the citizens of this Republic would able to elect leaders to espouse our values as a nation.

For more than 200 years, the valiant have sacrificed themselves so that these shared values will not perish from the face of the Earth. Millions have served. Many have died. Many were broken, never to be made whole again. They willingly made those sacrifices in order to keep you free, and so that you would have the freedom to cast a ballot on election day.

Somewhere in your life there is a soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine. Perhaps it is a great-grandfather, or uncle, or cousin, or childhood friend. If you value them, if you value their willingness to risk it all to protect your freedom, then you must vote. To not vote is to disrespect them.

But as much honoring the sacrifices of those who served in the military matters, they are not the only reason you should vote.

If you don’t vote, then you’re expressing the belief—whether you mean to, or not—that the future of this country, and the future of your children and grandchildren, isn’t important.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone gripe about the quality of their schools, or the decisions made by their school boards, or ordinances passed by their local governments, state legislatures, or the federal government, and yet when asked if they voted, they freeze like deer in headlights while trying to think of an excuse.

They had to go to work.

Someone in their family had an illness.

It was too hot, or too cold, or lines were too long, or the old standby…

“My vote doesn’t matter.”

Let me tell you something: every vote matters.

Elections are routinely decided in precincts of tens of thousands of voters by mere hundreds of individuals who decided that their votes were going to matter while others stayed home, waiting for a mythical perfect candidate who will agree with them on every single issue.

Tomorrow, illegal aliens will attempt to cast ballots to remake the United States in the image of their failed homelands. Criminals will attempt to cast multiple votes in multiple precincts in order to shift close elections. Corrupt machine politicians will find a way to cheat.

The way to defeat these criminals—the way to honor those who have sacrificed—the way to create a better world for your children and grandchildren—is all the same.

Tomorrow, don’t make excuses. Make a difference.  Research the candidates on your ballot and determine that no matter the weather, the headaches, the traffic or the circumstances, you will care enough to cast a ballot. When enough good people vote, the bad people can’t hope to cheat enough to win.

Whatever else you do tomorrow, do the single most important thing that an American citizen can do.

Vote like your nation’s future depends upon it.

Because it does.