The US National Rifle Association has announced its endorsement of Donald Trump for president, saying it was time to unite behind the Republican or "kiss your guns goodbye" if Hillary Clinton is elected.
"We have to unite and we have to unite right now," Chris Cox, head of the NRA's lobbying arm, said at the gun rights group's annual convention in Louisville, Kentucky.
"So on behalf of the thousands of patriots in this room, the five million NRA members across this country, and the tens of millions who support us, I'm officially announcing the NRA's endorsement of Donald Trump for president."
The NRA's endorsement of a Republican nominee is no surprise.
However the timing is notable because it came months earlier than in the previous two elections, suggesting the nation's largest gun-rights advocacy group was seeking to help the Republican Party unite conservatives fractured over Mr Trump.
The group's chief executive Wayne LaPierre declared it was time to prevent Ms Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, from gaining the White House and appointing a new justice to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court.
"If she gets just one Supreme Court nomination, Hillary's court will hold that the (US Constitution's) Second Amendment is the government right, not an individual right, and you can kiss your guns goodbye," Mr LaPierre said.
Mr Trump addressed the meeting, tossing out line after line of red meat to gun rights supporters.
"We're getting rid of gun-free zones, OK? I can tell you," Mr Trump said to loud applause.
While advertising his own support for gun rights - his sons own so many firearms that "even I get a little bit concerned," he said - Mr Trump sought to paint Ms Clinton as an anti-gun radical who will take away Americans' constitutional rights.
"The Second Amendment is under a threat like never before," Mr Trump declared.
"Crooked Hillary Clinton is the most anti-gun, anti-Second-Amendment candidate ever to run for office.
Mr Trump also repeated his assertion that the terror strikes in France last year could have been minimised or even avoided if citizens had been armed.
"Paris is, probably in the world, the toughest place to have a gun," he said.
"No guns on the other side, folks. If you would have had guns on the other side... I promise there wouldn't have been 130 people killed and hundreds of people lying in the hospital to this day."
Polls show Trump is narrowing gap on Clinton
The endorsement comes as a national poll published this morning indicated that Ms Clinton's lead over Mr Trump narrowed since he became the apparent winner of the Republican presidential nomination.
The CBS News/New York Times survey found that 47% of registered voters would support Mrs Clinton, while 41% back Mr Trump.
The same survey gave better odds to Bernie Sanders, Mrs Clinton's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, showing him leading Mr Trump by 51% to 38%.
Last month, Mrs Clinton the former US secretary of State, led Mr Trump by ten points in a CBS News poll.
The phone survey of 1,300 adults published today had a margin of error of plus-or-minus three percentage points, the Times said.
Mr Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee earlier this month, when the last of his rivals dropped out of the race, after he amassed what appeared to be an insurmountable lead in delegate support.
Republican Party leaders hold their convention to formally select their nominee in July.
Mrs Clinton remains locked in a primary fight-to-the-finish with Mr Sanders, but her commanding delegate lead over the Vermont senator appears sufficient to propel her to the nomination when Democratic Party grandees hold their convention, which also takes place in July.
