PAUL BEDARD: NRA warns of Obama packing Supreme Court.

The National Rifle Association is already jumping into the 2012 election, warning that a Democratic Senate and reelected president could get a shot at changing the political makeup of the Supreme Court and raining a hail of gun fire on the Second Amendment.

“We can’t afford a strategy of praying for the health of five Supreme Court justices,” said Chris Cox, director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, in a reference to the one-vote GOP majority on the court of nine aging justices.

Cox said the NRA isn’t waiting for the presidential election to get involved, turning to key Senate races to endorse pro-gun candidates even in primaries. Wednesday, for example, the powerful lobby backed Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock over Sen. Dick Lugar in the GOP primary. “The Supreme Court is certainly running in every Senate race in the country,” he told Secrets.

When I think Lugar, I don’t think Second Amendment.