“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.