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PHOENIX — Arizonans won't get to vote on restricting the governor's ability to seize weapons in time of emergency because of last-minute opposition from an unusual source: the National Rifle Association.

Senate Majority Leader Tim Bee said NRA President Sandy Froman indicated the organization wanted "some tweaks" in the language that could not be made this late in the session.

Sen. Toni Hellon, R-Tucson, said Froman's opposition was not so much the language, but the fear of putting the measure on the November ballot and then having to spend potentially millions of dollars to ensure it was not defeated.

But Sen. Dean Martin, R-Phoenix, who wrote the measure, said there is a more sinister reason for the NRA opposition. He said the organization is miffed the Senate refused to confirm an NRA-backed nominee to the state Game and Fish Commission.

NRA lobbyist Darren LaSorte did not return repeated calls. Efforts to contact Froman were unsuccessful.

But in a memo to lawmakers, LaSorte called the measure "partisan politics at its worst." And he said if the measure were placed on the ballot, "The state's gun owners are the ones most likely to pay the price."

Martin's measure would have legally barred any governor from using a state of emergency to place new restrictions on the possession, transfer, sales, carrying, storage, display or use of firearms or ammunition. It also would have removed any ability to commandeer and use weapons or ammunition during a state of war.

He said the measure is a direct outgrowth of what happened following Hurricane Katrina when New Orleans police confiscated weapons. It took a judge's ruling to stop it and have the guns returned.

Martin pushed the measure through the Judiciary Committee in the closing hours of the legislative session Wednesday. But it was yanked off the Senate floor calendar after LaSorte's e-mail to legislators.

Hellon said the NRA president told her and others in a phone call the organization opposes the plan. "She said 'We do not want this to go to the ballot,' " Hellon said.

She said Froman told lawmakers they like the concept of the measure, but object to the cost of a campaign to support it.

"She said, 'The money we'd have to spend on that is money we cannot use on elections and other things,'" Hellon recalled. The organization prefers that lawmakers pursue the issue legislatively, Hellon said.

Martin, however, said he believes the NRA opposition has more to do with political muscle than concerns about a ballot fight. "They didn't want to make the governor look bad because she made an appointment that (they) like,'' said Martin. It was an appointment senators refused to confirm.

That appointment was of Jennifer Martin to the state Game and Fish Commission, a former agency staffer specializing in wildlife management.

But Todd Rathner, an NRA board member from Tucson, said Martin is off-base.

"There is zero relationship there," he said. "None." Rathner said the NRA endorsed Jennifer Martin after interviews showed she is "strongly pro-hunting and sees hunting as an important, integral part of wildlife management."