After $30m in campaign ad buys and months of unflinching support for Donald Trump, the National Rifle Association has what it wanted: a supreme court nominee it views as a strong defender of gun rights.

The federal court judge Neil Gorsuch “will protect our right to keep and bear arms”, the gun rights group said on Tuesday night, in a swift endorsement of Trump’s supreme court pick.

Gun control advocates say that some of Gorsuch’s previous cases suggest he might support laws that “make it easier for felons to own guns”.

Unlike Thomas Hardiman, another federal judge who was also reportedly on Trump’s shortlist for the supreme court seat, Gorsuch does not have a clear record as a supporter of gun rights.

Gorsuch “doesn’t have any major second amendment cases”, Dave Kopel, a gun rights attorney and lifetime NRA member, said on Tuesday night.

But the smaller gun rights cases that have come before Gorsuch show a pattern: “Judge Gorsuch reads the second amendment in a very broad way, to protect even people who have been convicted of felonies,” said Adam Winkler, a gun rights expert at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law.

That suggests Gorsuch “would read laws that ban people from having guns narrowly”, Winkler said, and that he would oppose a lifetime prohibition on people with felony records owning guns.

“He doesn’t have a lot of cases, but the cases he does have very much fall in line with the NRA’s view,” Winkler said.

The nation’s largest gun control group, Everytown for Gun Safety, did not immediately oppose Gorsuch’s nomination, but it pushed for senators to ask the nominee “tough questions”.

“Neil Gorsuch’s record on gun-related cases indicates some willingness to make it easier for felons to own guns – something that puts our families and communities at risk,” Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said in a statement.

After months of campaigning for Trump, the NRA promised to keep up the pressure to get Gorsuch confirmed. The group will join a broad swath of interest groups that are likely to spend millions of dollars in the coming months to advocate for confirmation of the nominee.

“We will be activating our members and tens of millions of supporters throughout the country in support of Judge Gorsuch,” said Chris Cox, the NRA’s s chief lobbyist, said in a statement.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s trade association, also “expressed its strong support” for Gorsuch.