Gun rights groups are planning a busy election season.

    To maintain momentum gained from the Supreme Court's ruling in June striking down the District of Columbia's handgun ban and declaring that the Second Amendment grants individuals a right to own firearms, the gun groups have launched the most ambitious voter registration and education drives they've ever attempted. Congressional election endorsements from the National Rifle Association (NRA) are due this month. Also on tap is a media blitz by multiple groups in competitive districts.

    At the Republican convention, strategic planning is under way.

    "It's a chance for us to sit down and buttonhole the candidates on legislative matters," said Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

    While the Supreme Court ruling has helped the groups boost their membership, the narrow 5-4 ruling on the D.C. handgun case underscores the importance to gun rights advocates of future Supreme Court appointments.

    "They're energized, they're heartened and they're happy," said Andrew Arulanandam, an NRA spokesman. "But they also recognize it was a slim victory."

    Arulanandam said the NRA will also conduct mailings, advertisements and news conferences. And it will issue congressional endorsements in most districts.

    The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms does not engage directly in partisan politics but conducts voter education efforts. Gottlieb declined to divulge specific election plans but said the committee will focus on tight races, posting congressional voting records and ratings on its Web site "to let people know who's a friend."

    The group also may use advertising, direct mail, speaking engagements and media appearances. And its voter registration campaign is under way, mostly at gun shows, Gottlieb said.

    Also active in voter education and registration is the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for some 4,500 firms in the firearms industry.

    A relatively new gun owners group, the American Hunters and Shooters Association, is focused on conservation and has criticized the NRA and other groups for promoting political candidates who are strong on gun rights but not on protecting hunting areas from developers.

    "What good is your gun if there's nowhere to hunt?" said John Robinson, the association's chief of staff.

    This group, which is less than three years old, has endorsed the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, whom it sees as more supportive of conservation.

    "We're going to go and hold the NRA accountable for its statements, to make sure it is not lying about Obama's record," Robinson said.

    Both major party presidential candidates affirm an individual's right to own firearms. Beyond that, their records diverge on the issue.

    Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona has mostly agreed with the NRA's gun rights positions. He opposed a ban on assault weapons and voted against exposing gun manufacturers to civil lawsuits. He deviated from the NRA just twice on significant issues, when he voted to require a 72-hour waiting period for background checks on gun purchasers at gun shows and when he pushed campaign-finance legislation that gun groups considered an attack on their rights to expression.

    Obama has voted to allow liability lawsuits against gunmakers. And he voted in favor of several gun-control measures in the Illinois legislature, including a ban on semi-automatic weapons.

    The NRA will not endorse Obama. But it has not said whether it will endorse McCain. The group began endorsing presidential candidates in the 1980s and has done so in five of the past seven races, declining to endorse a candidate in 1992 and 1996.