Two national gun rights organizations have announced the recipients of two awards, one being the Second Amendment Foundation’s “Distinguished Service Award” and the other the “Bill of Rights” award issued by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Earning the SAF award is New York attorney David Jensen, who has worked with SAF on several legal actions.
A graduate of Brigham Young University and the Washington and Lee University School of Law, Jensen grew up in Issaquah, Washington not far from SAF headquarters in nearby Bellevue, and graduated from Liberty High School. But as luck would have it, he traveled east, attending law school in Virginia, eventually traveling north to New York, where he became interested initially in maritime law, and New York is where much if not most such litigation occurs, he said.
Jensen clerked at the United States federal court, and he worked with the Blank Rome and later Duane Morris law offices before starting his own practice, David Jensen PLLC. He has been involved in several cases related to the Second Amendment.
“We are very fortunate to have crossed paths with David Jensen,” said SAF founder and executive vice president Alan M. Gottlieb. “We’ve had the pleasure of being represented in various legal actions by David, and he has attended our annual Gun Rights Policy Conferences to detail some of those cases. He is currently working with us on our challenge of New York City’s restrictive concealed carry permitting system.”
Jensen recalled his first Second Amendment case involved a challenge to New Jersey’s restrictive carry permitting law. He recalled that case especially because the name of the case changed three times during the litigation process. Jensen has been involved in several SAF cases in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois.
“I really appreciate this award,” Jensen said. “I’m very honored to receive this award, as well as to be part of the fight to vindicate Second Amendment rights. Our best days are still ahead of us, and I look forward to continue to work with SAF to secure our rights for the future.”
CCRKBA’s award goes to Washington Free Beacon writer Stephen Gutowski.
“There is more to the Bill of Rights than the Second Amendment,” noted Gottlieb, speaking as chairman of the grassroots organization. “There’s also a First Amendment, and Stephen Gutowski exercises and defends both on a daily basis. He represents the best in professional journalism, asking the right questions, raising the right issues and putting it all together in a way readers clearly understand the story.”
Gutowski’s reporting on firearms policy and politics has been cited in every major media outlet, and he has been a guest on Fox News’ primetime programs, and also as the cover of TIME magazine.
“Stephen has been a past speaker at the annual Gun Rights Policy Conference,” Gottlieb recalled, “and his perspectives on current news and events have invariably provided the audience with information they certainly wouldn’t get from the establishment media. He truly deserves this year’s award and we’re delighted to add his name to the list of recipients.”
Gutowski has a keen understanding of the firearms community and the issues they face, and he knows what news interests gun owners. In his spare time, he enjoys building AR-15s at home.
“I am honored to accept this award,” Gutowski said. “The Bill of Rights, perhaps more than any other founding document, sets the American experiment apart from what came before in human history. The explicit, written protection of core individual rights from the excesses of government power is what has allowed this country to develop into that shining city on a hill, that beacon of freedom envied the world over and unmatched in the sands of time. May we continue to revere and protect the liberties outlined within its margins so our children and our children’s children may also live as free men and women.”
