Gun owners tend to be gun voters, at least historically.

However, over the last few years, there's been a lot less of that than there used to be. Otherwise, we'd probably be talking about Congressman Brandon Herrera, among other things.

But this is 2024 and there's a presidential election. The anti-gun candidate has dropped out of the race and been replaced by someone who makes him look pro-gun by comparison. She picked a 2A traitor as her running mate.

And it seems that guns are a big issue in this election.

Nearly all Americans claim gun policy is a factor in their 2024 vote for President.

Those are the results of the latest CBS News/YouGov poll released on Sunday. The poll had Kamala Harris three points ahead of Donald Trump nationwide, and the pair tied in battleground states. It found that 88 percent of likely voters rated guns as a factor in how they planned to vote, with only 12 percent saying guns weren’t a factor at all in their vote.

Gun policy ranked in the middle of the pack when it came to issue importance. More respondents said guns were a major factor in their vote than abortion or the border. However, issues like the economy and the state of democracy ranked higher in the minds of voters than gun policy.

The poll shows American voters still consider gun policy a top issue, though not the very top. It indicates guns could play a significant role in the election, especially with a clear contrast between the two candidates. It also highlights the Harris and Trump campaigns’ diverging strategies on the issue, with the former doubling down on new restrictions and the latter staying mostly mum in recent weeks.

The CBS poll might help explain why Harris has been more consistent in prioritizing guns during her short time at the top of the ticket. Democrats were 13 points more likely to say gun policy was a major factor in their vote than Republicans. Liberals were nine points more likely than Conservatives to say the same. Black voters were the most likely to identify gun policy as a major factor at 70 percent.

Another YouGov poll, this one with The Economist, found that guns were more of a significant issue for Harris voters than for Trump voters; to the tune of 92 percent of Harris voters compared to just 77 percent of Trump voters.

What's possibly more disturbing is that 68 percent of Harris voters rated guns as very important compared to just 46 percent of Trump supporters.

Now, let's remember that Kamala Harris ran for president four years ago and one of her plans wasn't just an assault weapon ban but a mandatory buyback of all such rifles. If that were allowed to stand with the most popular rifle model in the nation, nothing is off the table.

Of course, some might look at this and figure that gun owners are simply those in the Trump camp who say guns are important. That would be a pretty logical way to interpret these numbers.

Except that earlier today, the NRA ran a piece about just how many hunters and gun owners aren't even registered to vote.

Recently released data from Vote4America indicates 10 million hunters and gun owners in the United States are not registered to vote. The figures, according to a New York Post article, “…show that if Republicans don’t address political apathy among their gun-owning base in key swing states, they’ll have far fewer voters in their arsenal to score victories this November.”

States with the most sportsmen not yet registered to vote in the upcoming Presidential election include Pennsylvania, with 515,277 and roughly a half million each in Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin. The states with the fewest number of unregistered sportsmen and women are Arizona at 133,000, Nevada with 59,173 and Montana, 52,233.

Election Day falls during the height of hunting seasons in many states, but sportsmen who act fast can qualify to cast their ballots absentee when they can’t make it to the polls. The Vote4America website offers a number of convenient links to register, check registration and more. It’s free and using its resources doesn’t require enrolling in another mailing list. Agreeing to its “terms of service,” however, is.

Now, some hunters are, in fact, Fudds. They figure that their hunting rifles aren't going to be impacted, so they don't actually care about assault weapon bans, universal background checks, and so on. However, I suspect they're far from the majority, especially with things like the proposed semi-auto ban we've seen in the halls of Congress. That'll hit their semi-auto hunting rifles and shotguns, too.

There's a reason why gun owners need to be gun voters. The anti-gun side isn't going to spare your hunting rifles. They're just a lower priority here and now. If things progress as the anti-gunners desire, your bolt-action hunting rifles and pump-action shotguns will be next to some degree or another.

The fact that there are so many sportsmen and other flavors of gun owners who aren't even registered to vote is troubling.

10 million people is a lot. It's enough to swing an election all on its own. I included the call to action about registering in the NRA's piece because, honestly, that needs to happen. We need to defend our right to keep and bear arms so the right to keep and bear arms can help us defend ourselves. That means getting out and voting for pro-Second Amendment candidates and voting against anti-Second Amendment candidates. You don't have to like everything the pro-gun guys say or do, just remember that most of what they want might inconvenience you, but it won't result in your inability to defend yourself or your family.

Be a gun voter or lose the ability to be a gun owner sooner or later.