When President Obama signs the much-heralded credit card reform bill, he will be delivering a major coup for the National Rifle Association.

Kirsten Gillibrand is it. The new U.S. Senator from New York. The upstate Congresswoman is widely viewed as smart, tough and an up-and-comer. She is also anti-gun control, which may open her to primary challenges from more liberal Democrats next year.

Ball Janik registered last week as a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association. The firm’s Erica Rhoad, once a staffer to former congressmen Bob Schaffer and Richard Pombo, is working for the group.

He played Moses and Michelangelo, but Americans under 40 are more likely to know Charlton Heston as the conservative activist who walked out on filmmaker Michael Moore.