Barack Obama struggled trying to win working-class white voters in the Democratic primaries and offended some by saying they “cling to guns” as a way “to explain their frustrations.” After that, can there be any doubt where the pro-gun vote will land in November? Actually, there is, and from some gun owners.

In early June, the National Rifle Association alerted its supporters to the Illinois senator’s record on gun issues, such as his support for state and local laws banning handgun ownership, and contended that as president he would be “a serious threat to Second Amendment liberties.”

A week later, in a follow-up to its backers, the organization said it had been surprised by some responses. “Amazingly, some people still don’t believe Obama is radically anti-gun,” the e-mail stated, “and some have gone so far as to claim that NRA was actually misrepresenting Obama’s anti-gun positions.”

The NRA’s chief lobbyist, Chris W. Cox, says it isn’t so much NRA members straying that concerns him. “Everyone I talk to says they are disgusted and borderline disenchanted by the fact Obama would belittle our way of life,” he said. Rather he’s concerned about a pro-Obama campaign launched by one of the NRA’s newest rivals, the American Hunters and Shooters Association. Started by former Washington Redskins lineman Ray Schoenke and former NRA lawyer Bob Ricker in 2005 in an effort to forge a middle ground on gun issues, the group endorsed Obama in April — saying that he, more than Republican John McCain, is likely to preserve the pristine wilderness areas where hunters like to go.

Last month, the American Hunters group stepped up its campaign to embarrass the NRA by running an open letter to NRA members in the Louisville Courier-Journal during the organization’s convention in Kentucky, to which McCain spoke. The letter questioned the Arizona senator’s pro-gun credentials, citing his shifting views on whether gun purchasers should have to undergo background checks at gun shows.

“Obama has said very clearly that the Second Amendment is an individual right, and Obama is far and away above John McCain on conservation issues that hunters and shooters are very much interested in,” said Ricker. “Those issues have the NRA worried.”

For its part, the NRA is planning to spend $40 million on ads in the general election campaign, according to published reports last week, with a third of the spending aimed at Obama.