A writer for Breitbart News, renowned for his writings on gun rights and Second Amendment issues, has been recognized as “Journalist of the Year” at a national gun rights conference.
AWR Hawkins was presented the award of Journalist of the Year at the 30th Annual Gun Rights Policy Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. The conference is sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF). The award was presented by one of the nation’s leading gun rights advocates, Alan Gottlieb. He is the founder of the SAF and currently serves as Senior Vice President of the organization.
“Quite obviously, the media is very biased against gun rights,” Gottlieb said speaking about the award during an interview at the conference. “AWR Hawkins does a great job of responding to stories that other people do that are twisted and he untwists it for us. Plus the fact that he is also very good at finding things out there that need media attention, but that the media does not give any attention to.”
“His stories have had a very big impact,” Gottlieb continued. “We, as gun rights activists, have seen a lot of feedback, from tweets, on social media and from our supporters out there – ‘Hey, have you seen this?’ His reach has been very, very good and has done an awful lot to support Second Amendment rights.”
This conference, now in its 30th year, was started by Gottlieb to bring different gun rights groups together. “The problem in the gun rights world,” Gottlieb explained, “is that none of the groups would come together and talk. The first conference was to try and get the national groups to come together.”
He explained that in the following years, more and more local gun rights groups would come together and engage in developing a national voice for gun rights. “They’re [local grass roots activists] the boots on the ground,” he continued. “They work well in the states and then it gets duplicated in other states.”
He explained that while the SAF funds the conference, it is the 60-70 speakers that come in over two days that shape the policy message that comes out of the conference.
“We try to pre-empt what our opponents are doing,” Gottlieb concluded, “and react to them early to try and set the agenda instead of having the other side set the agenda for us.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly atawrhawkins@breitbart.com.
Bob Price serves as senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.