The National Rifle Association has mounted an outrageous campaign to torpedo President Obama’s nomination of an outstanding young doctor to be the next surgeon general of the United States because of his attitudes on gun control. The sad part is, the campaign is causing some nervous Democrats whose votes may be needed for Senate confirmation to consider breaking with the president to bolster their own chances for re-election in states where the gun lobby is powerful.

The nominee is Dr. Vivek Murthy, an internist, who has impeccable credentials for the job. He currently works at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, an outstanding teaching hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School, where he also teaches. He started a software technology company to improve the efficiency of clinical trials around the world and currently is president of Doctors for America, the successor to Doctors for Obama, whose 16,000 members support the health care reforms and access to affordable health care.

The job of surgeon general plays an important role advocating for healthier lifestyles. Some former surgeons general have reshaped the nation’s thinking on the dangers of smoking and the urgency of combating AIDS. Dr. Murthy said at his confirmation hearing last month that he intended to focus on preventing obesity, tobacco-related disease, mental illness and community-driven public health initiatives — all subjects worthy of attention. In answer to a Republican question, he said he would not use his office as “a bully pulpit for gun control.”

What aroused the N.R.A.’s ire was a letter Doctors for America sent to Congress in January 2013, shortly after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, which he co-signed as the organization’s president, and a similar letter sent to Vice President Joseph Biden Jr., as chief of the task force appointed by Mr. Obama to find solutions to gun violence.