“Be the change you want to see in the world.” - Mahatma Gandhi

So what have you done for gun rights lately?

Chances are you’ll answer that you sent money, wrote a letter to your local paper or contacted your Congressional representative. If you’re especially energetic, maybe you staffed your political party’s booth at the state fair or handed out voter registration forms at your local gun show.

I hope you did some or all of these things, because grass-roots political activism is an essential component in the preservation of democracy and civil rights. But the best thing you can do to protect gun rights is even simpler: take a novice shooting. Actually getting more people to own guns and to participate in appropriate firearms-related activities will do more for us in the long run because grass-roots political activism will always take a back seat to grass-roots cultural activism.

The best action a gun rights activist can take is to introduce new shooters to guns and gun culture.

Let me explain. The first time you visited a gun range, it’s unlikely that you gently lowered the smoking weapon, wiped a tear and then remarked to yourself, “Today I am no longer a subject; I am a citizen. I have taken up the essential tools that define my humanity—the tools for hunting and self-defense—these tools, which are my birthright and which forever separate the shepherd from the sheep and the prisoner from the free.” (Cue sunset and Dvorak’s ninth symphony . . . ) If that was your reaction, you are probably in Congress by now. Congratulations. More likely your reaction was something akin to “wow,” “cool,” or “Hey, that hurt!”

I don’t mean to make light of lofty sentiments—I share and strongly believe them. The recent murders of peaceful street protesters in Iran by that country’s government and its state-sanctioned paramilitaries proved that the old adage about never bringing a knife to a gunfight applies to revolutions as well as to home owners. So yes, the Second Amendment is the cornerstone of our democracy. But the attitudes that make the Second Amendment meaningful are cultural and social, not merely political. Culturally people must want to own guns or the right to do so is meaningless, and ultimately endangered.

The Second Amendment (and yes, democracy) will remain safe only as long as gun owners constitute a strong percentage of Americans. People who actually own and use guns are the best ones to understand policy discussions about them. And there is strength in numbers. The assault weapons ban would never have seen the light of day if the general public understood the distinctions between semi- and fully-automatic weapons. Shooters do. Non-shooters might grasp the explanation, but have no visceral understanding of it to inform their opinions. Politicians who own guns are the ones who’ve learned firsthand what is involved in safe storage, legal transportation, licensing (where required) and effective usage of their firearms. And they are the ones least likely to pass new restrictions against their own property and civil rights.

It is always the duty of citizens in a democracy to educate their peers and the next generation. As a gun owners, this means first sharing your cultural knowledge as a bridge to sharing your political knowledge: Take someone shooting. Talk to your anti-gun co-worker or neighbor and offer to pay their range fee if they come with you. Join a youth mentoring program and take a child to a hunter-safety course. Be patient; be polite; be sane. Don’t rave about black helicopters; denounce the fringe that does. The image of the gun owner as a positive force in society is in your hands—take care of it, share it, and most of all, grow it.

This past weekend I had my own chance to “walk the walk.” Over the years I’ve introduced quite a number of people to shooting, and many of them have decided to become gun owners. On Saturday, my friend Donny Adair of the African American Hunting Association and I put together a “new shooters day” at our local skeet range. The turn-out was pretty good—thirteen in all, including three children and seven or eight participants who had never fired a gun before in their lives. The club range master was on hand to explain safety and the functioning of various shotguns. We didn’t talk politics; we just tried to bust clays. Turns out about half of the new shooters came away “hooked.” A couple talked about joining the club, getting a shotgun (the gateway drug to gun ownership), taking lessons, bringing friends, and in short, taking their first steps toward understanding the history, culture and responsibilities of gun culture. Even if these folks ultimately don’t make it back to the range they gained valuable experience and saw firsthand that the guns didn’t fire until they were picked up, loaded, aimed and the triggers pulled (unless they left the safety on.) Not a bad perspective to learn.

As a Second Amendment activist, I’ll take a new shooter over a letter to my Congressman any day.

As the newest member of the Advisory Board of AHSA, member and current vice-chair of the Gun Owners Caucus for the Texas Democratic Party and former member of the Gun Owners Caucus for the Democratic Party of Oregon (GOC-DPO), it's time that I begin blogging about women and gun-ownership.

Rather than talk about today's vote in the U.S. Senate's vote regarding concealed weapons across state lines, I'd rather chat about the relationship between women and guns.

When I poll my friends on whether they own a gun or not, while many of my guy friends either own a gun or know how to operate one, very few of my girlfriends a) own a gun and b) know how to shoot one. It's time for that to change.

Typically in the urban city areas, very few women feel the need to own a gun for one reason or another. The overwhelming reason seems to be that they are scared of guns - they don't know how to shoot, clean, and properly own a gun, and they feel either foolish or silly asking the men in their lives (fathers, brothers, husbands, boyfriends, etc.) about owning one. Sometimes, these men just scoff at the idea of the women in their lives (wives, daughters, girlfriends) owning a gun and indicate that they will be there to protect them, or maybe there is an underlying fear of knowing their women are armed. Whatever the case, that needs to change.

Women, as well as men, have the right to defend themselves - the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution was not written for men alone. And with more single women out there either living alone or traveling alone, we need to take it upon ourselves to properly arm ourselves with protection. Many times we are left to our own devices to defend ourselves, and a gun is a much better line of defense than having an alarm system, chemical mace or pepper spray. Also, not many offenders probably expect for a woman to be carrying a piece, so the element of surprise would likely play in our favor if the need arises.

My primary mission of this blog is to keep women informed about the world of guns - legislation that would impact their ownership and operation of weapons, resources on where to go to learn more about guns, how to obtain a concealed weapons permit in various jurisdictions, and other items necessary for us to properly defend ourselves.

So, you may be asking why the "The Well-Heeled Shooter"? Well, in homage to my affection for a wide variety of shoes , I may choose to wear any sort of shoe to go shooting....it may be a flashy pair of sandals or my Prada ankle boots. As a female who believes in the right to keep and bear arms for protection, who knows what kind of shoe I'll be wearing if I ever have to use my weapon to defend myself, but rest assured that regardless of footwear, I'll be packed, stacked and well-heeled if and when that time comes.