Tag: vote
27 Days: Turkey Hunters, Show Up and Vote
A Pre‑Election Editorial for New York’s Turkey Hunters and Outdoorsmen
© 2026 Mike Joyner — Joyner Outdoor Media
My fellow turkey hunters, deer hunters, waterfowlers, small‑game chasers, and every gun‑owning outdoorsman across the Empire State- we are 27 days from an election that will shape the future of hunting, gun ownership, and rural life in New York.
Twenty‑seven days. That’s one moon cycle. That’s the difference between a gobbler on the limb and a gobbler in the freezer. And right now, the people who hate our traditions are already lined up at the polls. Meanwhile, too many of us are still shrugging, still silent, still acting like spectators. In 18 days, early voting starts…
I’m going to say this bluntly: If New York hunters sit out again, we deserve every ounce of what Albany is about to shove down our throats, and up our backsides.
The Numbers Are a Disaster. They’re OUR Disaster
New York has an estimated 1.9–2.1 million gun owners.
Turnout research shows 35–45% of gun owners don’t vote in statewide elections.
That means: 700,000 to 900,000 gun owners in New York sit out elections.
That’s not “downstate runs everything.” That’s not “the city outnumbers us.” That’s not “my vote doesn’t matter.” That’s us – hunters, shooters, outdoorsmen – choosing not to matter.
In 2022, Hochul won by 311,000 votes. Our non‑voting bloc is double that. Let me put it in turkey‑hunter terms: We had a longbeard at 25 yards, broadside, standing still… and we never pulled the trigger.
Four Weeks Out – Hochul Is Still Aiming at Us
Governor Kathy Hochul has made it clear she sees gun owners as a problem to be managed, not citizens to be represented. She’s pushing:
- more restrictions,
- more enforcement,
- more regulatory pressure,
- more “public safety” initiatives that treat lawful gun owners like criminals in waiting.
And she does it with confidence because she knows the truth:
Gun‑control voters show up. Turkey Hunters, Gun‑rights voters don’t.
If you were designing a strategy to steamroll hunters and gun owners, you couldn’t ask for a better gift.
Turkey hunters understand commitment better than anyone. We get up at 3:30 a.m. We hike in the dark. We sit still. We wait. We methodically deploy our strategies. We put in the effort. But when it comes to the one essential thing that protects our guns, our rights, our hunting seasons, our traditions. we sit on our hands, we vanish. We act like Election Day is optional. We act as if someone else will handle it. We act like the gobbler will walk into range on his own. Without our skilled participation.
Here’s the brutal truth: If even half of New York’s gun owners voted, the entire political landscape would flip overnight. Not in theory. Not in fantasy. Not in some campfire “what if” story. In cold, hard math. But instead of voting like a Tour de Force, we’ve spent years acting like spectators. We let others decide our future. We let people who openly despise our traditions write the rules. And now we’re less than four weeks from another round of those rules.
**To the Hunters Who Vote: Thank You.**
To the Hunters Who Don’t: You Don’t Get to Complain. Put up or shut up. It’s that simple, the cold, hard truth. If you don’t vote, you helped write the next round of gun laws. If you don’t register to vote, you handed the steering wheel to people who want your guns destroyed or locked away forever. If you sit home on Election Day, you’re helping push New York further down the path of “gun control as cultural punishment.” You don’t get to bitch when the hammer drops. You don’t get to whine when the next restriction hits. You don’t get to act shocked when Albany tightens the screws again.
That’s All We Have. Show Up. Vote. Protect What’s Yours. We spend all year preparing for spring turkey. We scout. We pattern. We practice. We show up before dawn. We put forth the effort. Now it’s time to put this nonsense to bed, where it matters even more. If we fail here, we set the table for incremental encroachment that will eventually be outlawed and canceled, superseding any turkey hunt in the future, or any other hunting or fishing pursuit, for that matter. Not to mention protecting your own person, your family, your own home.
In my best New Yorker accent: You need to get off your ass, show up and vote.
Because if nearly a million gun owners continue to sit out elections, the future of hunting and gun ownership in New York is already decided…
Turkey Hunters-CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS Matter to you on Nov 5th 2024?
Let’s Start with the only rational answer- HELL YES…
A ‘Yes’ response serves no one if expressed only as lip service in the voting booth when it comes down to making a real difference. Core principles put to action are the only action that matters in your voices and our participation in the election process.
We are learning firsthand in real time that who wins elections has far-reaching impact in nearly all aspects of our lives, making a living, raising our families, pursuing our passions, and the resulting absolute nonsense of our political circus. We wince and shake our heads constantly over this as we endure. It is a simple observation of hundreds of years of recorded history, and a dash of common sense, that without the ability to defend against tyranny as a citizen from the less than honorable human traits within our own government, there is no guarantee of the first amendment which had been significantly attacked in recent years and in the quest for political power and domination of opposing parties. There are no noble intentions in this narcissistic effort, despite the ruse that is constantly in play to disarm opponents in political realms, and anyone who does not agree with faux narratives and party dictate.
As those of us who hunt, fish, and enjoy, use, and support gun ownership, we are treated rather poorly by far too many of our elected representatives and the monster of bureaucracy that is in need of a severe financial diet and retraction of authorities. Try to imagine us as citizens who are effectively neutered of firearm ownership and can be run over roughshod by any rogue politician or power-hungry political party. Cult of personality is not a valid factor if one cares about end goals being accomplished. The reaffirmation of the second and even the first amendment may be rightfully corrected in my lifetime, should we wake up and participate and vote as one voice.
Voting day is upon us, whether you participated in early voting, absentee ballot, or voting in person, make it count.
I will not demand what party you should affiliate with, or whom you should vote for. If voting today, I hope each of you took the time you look up each candidate, each party, and research their platform, their positions, and most importantly, their past voting records and history. Too many changes and flip-flops to gain votes. We need steadfast constitutionalists, representing us as stewards of our constitution and champions of the First and Second Amendment rights we hold dear.
I will put forth that in a critical review, I might not trust the flip-flopping post-non-violent coup after a legal primary. Anti-gunners, anti-hunters will flip-flop to get votes, but only long enough to get in the driver’s seat. Make no mistake, you will come to regret protest or cult of personality voting while falling for the ruse, voting against a candidate that supports these essential amendments down the road.
The mainstream media and social media platforms actively steer your feeds and searches, and what is presented to you on the first pages of your searches. Be mindful that others will forcefully tell you what is fact and what is not. It is evident that the fact-checkers are suspect. There is too much at stake, and all the stops are being pulled. As opponents of our positions are happy with the strategy of the ends justify the means to gut the first and second amendments, disarm us, and end hunting and fishing as dictated by special interest groups.
As a whole, gun owners, hunters, archers, trappers, competition shooters, and sportsmen in our Grand Union and especially in New York State fail miserably in casting ballots, despite a large demographic and cross-section of the population in the nation and the Empire State. If it is not our responsibility who then should this be assigned? Leftist Democrats bent on a single-party rule, Marxists, Socialists, Radical Fascists? Political parties make strategic calculations based on mediocre participation and the directed lack of respect for us by those we send to Washington to represent our concerns and core values.
To be fair, there are those among us who vote with firm conviction, educated on the issues, and especially on those candidates who professed to protect our First and Second Amendment rights. You know who you are, and my comments are not intended to disparage your good efforts.
We are being browbeaten and dictated to by those who have no understanding or working knowledge of history, the Second Amendment, sustainable wildlife conservation, and yet allow us to pay our way while putting a virtual knee on our necks in every aspect of our activities and inalienable rights. The same folks who are quick to assert their First Amendment rights are the very same who are bent on removing the First and Second Amendments for conservatives, those who refuse to kneel in front of them. Do we allow, by the stroke of a pen, to declare firearm owners felons by merely owning a legally purchased firearm? It can be argued that treason is being committed against the citizens of our country, and entirely unconstitutional on its face.
The framers of our Constitution and subsequent amendments intended that the second amendment be written purposely to defend against a tyrannical government and acts of treason against us. It is that plain and simple. I am certain that the amendment was not written in the anticipation of an unruly uprising of monster gobblers and Boone and Crockett whitetail bucks
None of us alive today were born into servitude or as serfs to kings whom we broke away from in our founding. If you give a damn about your rights and freedoms and that of your loved ones, your neighbors, your brethren, the passive response, sitting out elections is not a responsible choice, and you must exercise your rights as a citizen.
We cannot afford to sit back and continue letting others do our bidding…
Note from the author: Some of this was written in part is a reposting of prior comments and is well worth their inclusion here.
© 2024 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
New York Gun Owner/Sportsmen Apathy
Well, my fellow sportsmen, turkey hunters, deer hunters, waterfowlers, and gun owners across the great Empire State, we can legitimately be labeled as apathetic, not in the game as evidenced by the preliminary results reported this morning. As it appears we will have to suffer four more years of a governor that openly defies the supreme court rulings on constitutional matters, and governs as an emotionally riddled suppository that caters exclusively to a radical left base.
I find this painful to openly state, but we deserve this, we let it transpire with little opposition.
Using estimates for 2020-2021, 4.5 million gun owners are thought to be among us in New York. Seven hundred thousand outdoorsmen participate in hunting pursuits, although no breakdown of gun ownership there. To be fair I cannot assert that all of those included in these numbers would vote single issue, even to preserve our constitutional rights. With the current results pegging Gov. Hochul at 3.022 million votes with a margin of 311,000 votes, a five-point spread, on its face, our group of “like-minded people” could have singled-handedly sent her packing in a landslide.
I’ve heard enough of the downstate runs everything argument… Total bullshit… We failed miserably to represent ourselves. If 68% of us 4.5 million gun owners in New York pulled the lever, scanned the ballot, tables would have been turned. “Put up or shut up” is an appropriate retort to this fail.
Would of, could of, should of, is of little comfort in the coming days when more restrictive gun control gets shoved down our throats while we hope and pray it gets remedied by the Supreme Court years later, assuming confiscation doesn’t happen beforehand. You can bet with our current representatives; they want to be first in the nation in the erosion of the second amendment. It is the one amendment that ensures the good keeping of the first amendment as the others. If you have paid attention at all in the last decade, there are calls for censorship, ending private gun ownership, for neutering anyone that can oppose leftist views. Gun control has always been about control of us. Our opponents have made it clear that safety is not even the real discussion here at all. Bail reform is a game changer for criminal rights over law-abiding citizens. Ten out of ten criminals approve of that message.
We could have stopped this yesterday, and it is clear we didn’t vote as a Tour de Force, nor participate in the fundamental right as a New Yorker. Those that oppose us would like to see our views removed from the landscape and they did show up and vote. To those of our ranks that did, thank you from a fellow patriot. To those that sat it out, and never registered, there is no tolerance for your bitching when it hits the fan. In my best New Yorker accent “You need to show up and vote.”
-MJ
© 2022 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
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