Over ten million gun owners are not registered to vote, and conservative candidates would be wise to take notice.

Vote4America discussed data showing that winning over a sizeable percentage of these individuals would give them an edge in the upcoming elections. However, given these voters’ attitudes toward the political system, those seeking their votes have a lot of work to do when it comes to winning them over.

A breakdown of the data reveals a major shortfall in voter registration among gun owners in the states that will decide the 2024 election: 515,277 in Pennsylvania and around 370,000 each in Michigan and North Carolina. Georgia, Wisconsin, Missouri and Virginia all have more than half a million hunters and gun owners unregistered, and Arizona has the smallest shortfall at 133,000.

Audiences have not always responded positively to Vote4America’s voter-registration efforts. Adviser to the group Baker Leavitt told District of Conservation podcast host Gabriella Hoffman in a recent appearance that the most common response in its outreach to gun owners is the sentiment “My vote doesn’t count, the system is rigged.”

Despite the pessimism, even marginal wins could pay big dividends come November. “If we could convert 2% of all licensed hunters and get them to vote, GOP would win in a landslide,” Leavitt told Hoffman.

Hoffman noted that “a lot of hunters and gun owners, they’re very animated in social media, they have a lot of opinions, but they don’t go out to vote. They talk a great deal, often about preserving your rights, doing this — hunting — but a lot of people don’t follow through with voting.”

The organization hopes to appeal to disillusioned gun owners by collaborating with various influencers in the hunting, pro-Second Amendment, and veteran spaces.

Stephen Aaron, another of the group’s advisers, he says when it comes to winning over disengaged gun owners, the mission is clear and simple.

“Our goal is to make sure these people know that voting matters. The issues people worry about — attacks on personal freedoms, our crime problem, skyrocketing inflation — are all impacted by the people we put in office. This is an effort to help voters connect the issues impacting their daily life to decisions made by elected officials so people understand their vote really does matter and they engage. It’s time to make America feel like home again.”

It seems gun owners are apathetic about the political process for similar reasons as many other Americans. They believe their concerns will not be addressed because they are unable to elect people who will represent their interests.

At least some of these individuals might live in areas of the country where people value self-reliance and local solutions rather than being engaged in state and federal politics. They could also have grown weary of the ongoing debate over gun rights. Given how the anti-gunners use every high-profile mass shooting as a clarion call for more useless gun restrictions, this would make sense.

Conservative candidates have an opportunity to win over Americans who value gun rights by showing them where Republicans in various states have passed legislation protecting the right to keep and bear arms. They could highlight permitless carry laws passed in states like Texas, Louisiana, and several others as evidence that they are serious about preventing the anti-gunner left from disarming the public.

For those who might not see that their Second Amendment rights are not guaranteed, it would be wise for politicians to show them that this right is still under constant attack. Some people might need to be shown that Democrats are not letting up in their efforts to diminish gun rights by making it harder for citizens to obtain and carry firearms.

If Republicans want to woo these voters, they will have to engage in effective outreach efforts to assure gun owners that they are the ones willing to protect their rights from those seeking to remove them.