Second Amendment Foundation

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Second Amendment Foundation?

The Second Amendment Foundation, founded in 1974 by Alan Gottlieb, is a tax-exempt Washington-state non-profit corporation organized under §501 (c) (3) of the IRS code. It has been a pioneer in innovative defense of the right to keep and bear arms, through its publications, public education programs and legal action. To fulfill its purpose, the Foundation maintains a headquarters office in Bellevue, WA, and a publishing office in Buffalo, NY.

2. How is SAF organized?

The Foundation is governed by a seven-member Board of Trustees which includes: Joseph P. Tartaro, president; Alan M. Gottlieb, founder and vice president; Robert M. Wiest, treasurer; Sam Slom, secretary; Massad Ayoob, Kirby Wilbur, and Gene Hoffman. Gottlieb, Tartaro and Wiest form the current executive committee of the Board. A copy of the Foundation's audited annual financial statement is available on request.

3. Does SAF sponsor any publications?

The Foundation publishes The New Gun Week three times a month. In continuous publication since 1966, Gun Week is widely recognized as the source newspaper for the national firearms community and gun industry. The Foundation also published the world’s only women’s firearms magazine, the bi-monthly Women & Guns; as well as the monthly newsletter, The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report, and the quarterly member/supporter newsletter SAF Reporter. In addition, The Foundation publishes the premier annual reference book of key gun-issue articles, the Journal of Firearms and Public Policy and reprints a number of monographs by leading Constitutional and firearms issue scholars.

4. What websites is the Second Amendment Foundation affiliated with?

The Foundation maintains an Internet website for firearms activists, attorneys, scholars and individuals with an interest in guns, gunowners and the right to keep and bear arms. The Foundation’s primary website—www.saf.org— contains timely news bulletins on important federal, state and local firearms legal issues, gun legislation and regulation, and informative articles on Second Amendment issues. Sample articles from SAF publications are also on the website, which has convenient links to other pro-gun Internet resources. In addition, two of the Foundation’s publications maintain separate websites: www.womenandguns.com and www.gunweek.com.

5. Does SAF promote discourse at the university level?

The Foundation takes pride in having stimulated many of the thoughtful firearms policy articles now seeing publication through its sponsorship of writers, scholars and attorneys conferences, which it started in 1976. The Foundation also sponsors or co-sponsors many legal conferences and debates at the law school and university level.

6. What resources and training does SAF provide for grassroots activists?

In addition to the scholars conferences, the Foundation hosts or co-sponsors with other groups a number of free grassroots seminars and meetings. These include the annual national pro-gun unity Gun Rights Policy Conferences (GRPC), starting in 1986, at which legislative and judicial actions of the previous year are reviewed and strategies discussed for the coming year by leaders of national, state and local pro-gun organizations. Each year, the Foundation also sponsors—in cooperation with the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and other organizations—state and regional Leadership Training Conferences (LTC) for grassroots activists. Over 30 such LTCs designed to help instruct grassroots activists in proven methods of organization, fund-raising, media relations and input to the political process have been held all across the nation.

7. Does SAF provide a library of resources and information pertaining to gun rights?

The Foundation disseminates information and reference packets to high school and college students preparing class papers on firearms-related questions and has a library resource program that places pro-gun reference books and monographs in public and school libraries. SAF further serves as a resource for authors of books, newspaper and magazine articles and television and radio programs dealing with various aspects of the right to keep and bear arms.

8. What media presence does SAF have?

The Foundation regularly distributes position papers, research reports and commentaries to the general media, and SAF staff participate annually in over 500 radio, television, newspaper and magazine appearances on behalf of the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms. Mr. Gottlieb alone appears on over 350 radio and television shows each year, including network programs, and his opinion articles have appeared frequently in USA Today and many other publications. The Foundation also makes investments in media properties as an extension of a resolution adopted at the 1989 Gun Rights Policy Conference.

9. Does SAF involve itself in legal action?

The Foundation has a noteworthy track record in supporting legal actions, or amicus briefs, in cases affecting the right to keep and bear arms. Successful court actions have been brought in many states—from overturning the San Francisco handgun ban to blocking a ban on the sale of handguns in New Haven, CT. The Foundation also has sponsored challenges to unfair concealed carry license practices in several states, including Ohio’s prohibition on concealed carry. One Foundation suit helped end 19 years of Los Angeles police denial of California CCWs, paving the way for issuance to average citizens. The Foundation has helped fund lawsuits against the 1994 federal gun ban, the California ban, and countersued cities that sued the gun industry.

10. I need a referral to an attorney who can help me maintain my rights; can SAF help?

Since it is impossible for any organization to fund every legal challenge it is asked to support, the Foundation maintains an attorney referral service with a network of attorneys who specialize in firearms cases. This makes it possible for people who seek legal counsel to have access to attorneys in their state who are able and willing to handle firearms-related cases.