BELLEVUE, Wash. — Sept. 29, 2026 — The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) honored its third recipient of the Golden Bowtie Award at this year’s Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) in Dallas. This year’s award was presented to longtime Second Amendment advocate and litigator Don Kilmer.
Recipients of the Golden Bowtie are people and/or organizations who have made significant contributions of time, talent and treasure to SAF and its mission.
Kilmer has been litigating constitutional law – primarily Second Amendment cases – for more than 25 years and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and all California U.S. District Courts. In addition, he is co-author of the law school casebook: Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy, 3rd Ed, and is a professor of Constitutional Law at Lincoln Law School of San Jose. Kilmer has represented SAF in numerous cases over the years and is a frequent presenter at GRPC.
“It was a privilege to present this year’s award to Don who has been a tremendous SAF partner for more than 20 years,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “Thanks to Don’s legal research and strategies, he has helped set precedent cited in countless Second Amendment cases across the country. I was honored to present this year’s Golden Bowtie award to Don, and we look forward to continuing working with him for years to come.”
The Golden Bowtie Award was created in honor of SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, who continues to wear his signature neckpiece. The award embodies Gottlieb’s spirit, character and grit when it comes to defending, securing and restoring our Second Amendment rights.
“Don has been a great friend and partner for years, and I couldn’t think of a more befitting person to receive this year’s Golden Bowtie Award,” Gottlieb said. “Don’s work in the Second Amendment space is second to none, and thanks to our unique partnership with Don we have been able to restore the right to keep and bear arms for an untold number of citizens. In no way is our work finished, and we will continue working with Don and others as long as there are those who are determined to treat the Second Amendment as a second-class right.”
For more information visit SAF.org.
The Second Amendment Foundation (saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group dedicated to safeguarding and promoting the fundamental rights of individuals enshrined in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. SAF engages in aggressive legal action to ensure the principles of armed self-defense, personal liberty, and the ownership of arms are defended, secured, and restored. Through public education initiatives, SAF teaches the importance of the Second Amendment to promote a society that values and exercises the right to keep and bear arms.
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