BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms announced today the recipient of the 2020 “Gun Rights Defender of the Year” award is veteran writer and military historian AWR Hawkins.

Hawkins earned a Master’s Degree in U.S. History at West Texas A&M in 2003 and his Ph.D in U.S. Military History at Texas Tech University in 2009, and he has been an adjunct professor of history at Norwich University since 2012.

He is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, where he has worked for more than 10 years, and his byline has also appeared at AmmoLand Shooting Sports News, the Daily Caller, Brussels Journal, and Towhall. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the writer/curator of “Down Range with AWR Hawkins,” a weekly newsletter for Breitbart discussing Second Amendment issues.

He has been a speaker at the annual Gun Rights Policy Conferences, hosted by CCRKBA and the Second Amendment Foundation, and he has been a guest on several radio programs including “Cam & Company,” the Ken Pittman Show, America’s Morning News, Gun Freedom Radio and others. In 2010, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal.

“AWR Hawkins is one of the more powerful voices in the Second Amendment community,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb observed. “He has worked tirelessly offering news and views from a pro-Second Amendment perspective, and his background certainly enables him to speak with authority on gun rights and military history.”

“It’s awesome to get this award,” Hawkins said in a telephone chat, “and it’s an honor to defend the Second Amendment and gun rights. Without those we don’t have freedom.”

“It’s always a pleasure to hand out our annual awards,” Gottlieb added. “We enjoy recognizing people for the hard work they do, day in and day out, usually without any recognition at all. Leaders like AWR Hawkins help maintain the momentum that will protect the right to keep and bear arms for decades to come.”