Gun control group faces off with NRA

Leading up the Senate vote on putting Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court, gun control advocates are intensifying their campaign against the National Rifle Association.

The NRA, which boasts a sizable and loyal membership, has warned senators that a "yes" vote on Sotomayor will be included on its widely distributed candidate scorecard.

But the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence says a half-dozen or more senators with past NRA endorsements are planning to vote for Sotomayor. Today, the Lincoln Journal Star reported that Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, a conservative Democrat who won an A+ from the NRA, also plans to support Sotomayor.

The Senate is expected to start debate on Tuesday and vote on Thursday.

"The conventional wisdom that NRA leaders can intimidate Congress into behaving like a vending machine - push a button and watch the votes come out - is taking a hard reality check from the Senate. With more votes once assumed to be automatic for the NRA still to be declared, that conventional wisdom is looking less conventional each day," spokesman Doug Pennington said in a statement.

And to get more votes on Tuesday, the Brady Campaign plans to send a mass email to hundreds of thousands of members urging them to call their senators.

"The National Rifle Association has trained its sights on Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's first nominee for the U. S. Supreme Court," the email says. "The gun lobby is coming out hard and fast, doing everything it can to defeat Judge Sotomayor's nomination with intimidation and bullying."

UPDATE: But Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate last year, announced this afternoon he will vote against Sotomayor.

Though his home state of Arizona has a sizable Latino presence, McCain said Sotomayor, who would be the first Hispanic on the high court, is a judicial activist who doesn't belong on the court, the Associated Press reports.