Alan Merril Gottlieb is an American author, conservative political activist, gun rights advocate, and businessperson.

He was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of filing false income tax returns in 1977 and 1978 by failing to include gross receipts of $138,000 and $260,000 those two years from Merril Associates, his political fund-raising firm[1] Gottlieb is a defender of gun rights, and most of his 19 books are about the subject.

Gottlieb is also the Chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, a board member of the American Conservative Union, and President of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise.

[citation needed] In 1984, Gottlieb plead guilty to filing a tax return that was not true to every material mater and was sentenced to a year and a day in prison by U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour.

"[5] The ill-fated expanded background checks bill was overwhelmingly supported by Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama at the time.