(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

If you didn’t already have enough reason to get out and vote during the midterm elections, Nancy Pelosi was kind enough to give you some more.

You see, she sat down with some of the Parkland kids and other gun control activists and vowed to make universal background checks a top priority should Democrats retake Congress after the midterms.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi promised South Florida gun-control activists that universal background checks would be among Democrats’ top priorities if the party wins control of the House in the midterm elections. Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-West Boca, met with students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, local members of the national gun-control group Moms Demand Action and fathers Manuel Oliver and Fred Guttenberg, whose children were among the 17 killed in the massacre at the Parkland school. Oliver asked Pelosi whether she had children, she told him that she had five, along with nine grandchildren. “Now I have to save your kids,” he told her, “because it’s too late to save mine.” Universal background checks would close the so-called “gun show loophole.” Right now, firearm sales from a federally licensed dealer require a background check, but private sales between individuals — for example, if someone wanted to sell a gun to a family member or neighbor — don’t require a check. This has given rise to a proliferation of firearms sellers at gun shows or online who operate under the rationale that they are selling from a private collection and so do not require background checks. “A common misconception that a lot of people have is that Democrats want gun control and Republicans don’t,” said Alfonso Calderon, a student at Stoneman Douglas whose activism has led him to Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. “Universal background checks and other bills of that matter are three votes, five votes away from being passed in the House.”

In other words, this election is vital. Pro-gun politicians have to maintain at least a partial hold on Congress, though a total hold on both chambers is obviously preferable.

The truth is, we all know that if Pelosi and her ilk get control of Congress, they’re going to keep pushing gun control over and over. If they get enough control, they’ll override any presidential veto because they’re so convinced in their moral infallibility. They don’t think for an instant that they might be wrong because they just feel so hard.

Well, they are. Increased background checks won’t really accomplish anything. States which already have universal background checks have shown us that it is, at most, a mixed bag. Frankly, without knowing who has guns where it’s also impossible to enforce with any degree of precision. That means they would need a registration scheme to make it work, and that’s one of those “cold, dead hands” prospects for many gun owners.

After all, registration invariably leads to confiscation.

That means you need to get out and vote. Vote for pro-gun candidates even if you don’t think they’ll win. Vote for them because, if nothing else, you can turn up the heat on anti-gun politicians and remind them they represent gun owners in their districts. Even if they win, a close margin will make them think twice before supporting a radical anti-gun agenda.

Make sure they know you’re there.