This will come as no surprise to anyone following the last Senate race left to voters in the nation this year.  The National Rifle Association has endorsed Saxby Chambliss for re-election against Jim Martin in Georgia.  The issue isn’t Martin as much as it is Barack Obama and the rubber stamp Martin will provide for him:

The National Rifle Association on Wednesday threw its support behind incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss in Georgia’s Dec. 2 runoff, saying he fears Democratic challenger Jim Martin would help erode Second Amendment protections for gun owners.

“We’re going to have some real battles in Washington,” Wayne LaPierre, executive vice-president of the NRA, said Wednesday morning in Atlanta before traveling to Perry for a Chambliss rally.

LaPierre, speaking to reporters at Chambliss’s Cobb County headquarters, said he thinks President-elect Barack Obama will “break his promise” to protect gun rights. And he said that if Martin is elected, the Atlanta attorney and former state lawmaker will help hasten the erosion of gun rights in the United States.

Martin’s campaign immediately rejected that idea, saying Martin is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment.

“Jim supports the Second Amendment and will protect the rights of all law-abiding citizens to bear arms,” said Martin spokesman Matt Canter. “Saxby Chambliss is the one who wants to raise taxes on guns and ammunition with his support of a national sales tax.”

Let’s just rebut this last argument first.  Chambliss supported a national sales tax as a replacement of the federal income tax.  It’s intellectually dishonest to paint it as an additional tax, and the Martin campaign knows it.  Whether or not one supports the Fair Tax proposal — I’m ambivalent — saying that Chambliss wants to increase taxes because of this proposal is as dishonest as it is absurd.

On that note, Martin’s support of the Second Amendment is hardly enthusiastic.  He opposes concealed-carry for law-abiding citizens, which despite the hysterical fantasies of the gun-control crowd here in Minnesota, has worked very well and allowed citizens to defend themselves.  Otherwise, he’s not all that bad.  Martin supports strengthening the enforcement of existing gun laws, which the NRA also supports, and opposes requiring a license for gun possession.  Martin wants background checks for buyers at gun shows and requirements for manufacturers to provide child-safety locks on guns, but overall seems to be centrist at worst on 2nd Amendment issues.

However, would anyone expect Martin to join a Republican filibuster on Obama administration proposals that would go farther?  Given that Martin’s running almost entirely as Obama’s toady in his own campaign commercials, that seems rather doubtful.  The NRA has apparently taken a better-safe-than-sorry approach to Jim Martin — and they’re right to do so.