“Gun rights groups have exploited the fact that Obama has an agenda that he wants to move quickly,” Helmke said, citing the president’s plans for the economy, health care and energy while prosecuting two wars. “Until the president weighs in, it’s going to be tough to advance any [gun control] agenda. It’s not the issue they want to take up right now.”

Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said Obama, who supports stronger gun restrictions, is wise to keep the issue out of the spotlight.

“What you’re seeing is a reflection of support for the Second Amendment across the country,” he said. “The reality is that support for the gun control agenda is a political liability. It is bad politics and bad policy.”

As the Senate’s consideration of Sotomayor’s nomination approaches, the NRA staff is scouring her record, Cox said. They are paying close attention to Maloney v. Cuomo, in which a three-judge panel on which she served unanimously rejected a man’s claim that a New York ban on nunchakus, a martial arts weapon, violated his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The opinion stated that the amendment applies only to limitations sought by the federal government, not to those imposed by state or local governments.

Cox said “it has yet to be determined” if the NRA will use the Senate vote on Sotomayor’s confirmation as part of its rankings for senators.

Gun Owners of America, whose membership of roughly 300,000 is dwarfed by the NRA’s 4 million members, takes a much harder line on Sotomayor.

The group’s president, Larry Pratt, said a vote to confirm her would cancel out any previous pro-gun-rights votes cast by congressional lawmakers.

“She’s very hostile to the Second Amendment,” he said. “A vote for her says you don’t really support the Second Amendment. . . . It nullifies all we have achieved and hope to achieve.”

On the legislative front, both groups support Burr’s legislation (S 669) on veterans’ gun rights. Under current law, the Department of Veterans Affairs is required to report to the FBI’s criminal background-check database — the system firearms dealers use to determine who can buy guns — any information on veterans determined to be mentally “defective” and unable to manage their own finances. Burr’s bill, co-sponsored by Jim Webb , D-Va., would prohibit the VA from sending the names of those veterans to the database unless a judicial authority rules them a danger to themselves or others.

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, on which Burr is ranking member, approved the measure in May. Burr is looking to attach it to another piece of legislation because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., is otherwise unlikely to bring it to the floor.

“It’s sort of a scary bill when you read it,” Helmke said. “It basically says it doesn’t matter if you’re comatose or have Alzheimer’s, you still have the right to own a gun.”

The NRA, which opposed mandates for background checks on the personal sale of firearms, is again ready to fight. In its sights is a bill (S 843) by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg , D-N.J., that would require background checks on all gun show sales. The measure would define a gun show as any event where 50 or more guns are on sale.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy , D-N.Y., is cosponsor of a companion measure (HR 2324) to Lautenberg’s proposal.

Even proponents of gun control hold out little hope of Congress closing the gun show loophole this year.

“That’s something that we hope will move in this Congress — not this year, but in this Congress,” Helmke said.

Gun rights advocates are also making it difficult for McCarthy and Sen. Dianne Feinstein , D-Calif., to renew the federal semi-automatic weapons ban (PL 103-322) that expired in 2004. McCarthy planned to introduce her bill two weeks ago, but she said Feinstein asked her to hold off so they could introduce their proposals together, probably after the August recess.

Feinstein said she has not ruled out trying to attach the ban to another piece of legislation to get it approved. “I’ll pick my spot,” she said.