August 25, 2023
BELLEVUE, WA – This Saturday, Aug. 26, marks the 49th anniversary of the founding of the Second Amendment Foundation, an organization which has become a powerhouse in firearms rights litigation, with significant victories all over the map, including a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2010, McDonald v. City of Chicago.
“As the saying goes,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “we’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go in our mission to win firearms freedom one lawsuit at a time.”
Right now, the SAF staff—a small but dedicated group based in a two-building complex—is planning for the 38th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC). This year’s event will be held Sept. 22-24 in Phoenix, Arizona for the two-day event, which attracts hundreds of gun rights activists and leading Second Amendment advocates from around the country. Attendance at the GRPC is free, and to pre-register, sign up here.
SAF’s litigation efforts began with two early court victories, challenging a ban on handgun sales in New Haven, Connecticut and an outright ban on handgun ownership in San Francisco, California.
“Those were two key lawsuits we won, and that was just the beginning of something which has grown into an organization we can proudly say represents and protects American gun owners and their right to keep and bear arms,” Gottlieb observed.
Since then, SAF has filed more than 250 lawsuits and currently has 50 legal actions filed in court defending Second Amendment rights.
In addition, the Second Amendment Foundation’s Legal Preemption Project has removed over 600 local anti-gun-rights laws off the books simply by threatening to go to court.
Adam Kraut, a practicing civil rights attorney based in the Philadelphia area, and who came on board late last year as SAF’s Executive Director, is excited and planning for the future, which includes a bigger 50th anniversary celebration in 2024.
“We’re living in challenging and exciting times,” Kraut said, “and I am glad to be a part of this organization. What SAF has accomplished with a veritable skeleton crew over the past four decades only signals what we have on the horizon as we continue to expand our legal footprint. “We’re just getting started,” Kraut said.