Mitt Romney aimed to assure gun owners Friday he would "safeguard our Second Amendment" as he claimed President Barack Obama undermines the U.S. Supreme Court and tramples on constitutional rights.

In a speech to the National Rifle Association, the Republican Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, resurrected the Democratic Obama's remarks about the justices taking an "unprecedented, extraordinary step" if they decided to overturn the health-care law known as Obamacare. Romney also ticked off high-profile Supreme Court cases on religious freedom and property rights in which the justices ruled against the Obama administration.

"If we are going to safeguard our Second Amendment, it is time to elect a president who will defend the rights President Obama ignores or minimizes," Romney said, referring to the constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to bear arms. "We've seen enough of President Obama over the last three years to know that we don't need another four."

Romney attempted to get more mileage from Obama's "unusual view" of the Supreme Court and its power to strike down laws as unconstitutional, taken from comments the president made about judicial review that have since been clarified.

"He thinks our nation's highest court is to be revered and respected -- as long as it remains faithful to the original intent of Barack Obama," Romney said. "Our freedoms would be in the hands of an Obama Court, not just for four years, but for the next 40. That must not happen."

Romney homed in on Supreme Court cases that the GOP presidential hopeful said involved Obama trying to "browbeat" the justices.

One Supreme Court case in which all nine justices ruled against the administration involved a parochial schoolteacher's employment-discrimination suit against a Lutheran church. The church considered the teacher a "minister," barring her bias suit under the First Amendment.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an independent federal agency that argued in support of the fired teacher, said employees should be considered ministers if they perform "exclusively religious functions," rather than leaving it to the discretion of church officials.

"[The government] claimed that the government instead could interfere with that decision," Romney said. "The government! The Constitution came to the rescue: the Supreme Court rejected the Obama administration's attack, in a 9-0 unanimous decision."

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