Essay Topic To enter the 2023 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest, students must submit an original essay of 500 words or fewer in response to the following prompt: “Describe your thoughts about lockdown drills conducted in response to the threat of shootings on American school campuses.”  The essay contest prompt is intentionally open-ended. Students may write about any aspect of lockdown drills and the threat of school shootings that they feel [...]

Americans Against Gun Violence is pleased to announce the winners of our 2022 National High School Essay Contest, which was open to all U.S. high school students. To enter the contest, students were required to submit an original essay of 500 words or fewer by April 16, 2022, describing their thoughts about the following statement made by the late Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger during an interview on the PBS News Hour on December 16, [...]

The 2022 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest Is Now Closed for New Submissions from U.S. High School Students    Note: Deadline to enter the contest was 11:59 PM on Saturday, April 16, 2022. Return to this page after May 16 to read the winning essays in this year's contest.     Essay Topic To enter the 2022 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest, students must submit an original [...]

Americans Against Gun Violence is pleased to announce the winners of our 2021 National High School Essay Contest. To enter the contest, which was open to all high school students in the United States and its territories, students were required to submit an essay of 500 words or fewer in response to the following prompt: “Describe the effect on American youth of the confluence of our country’s longstanding gun violence epidemic with the current Covid-19 [...]

The 2021 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest is now closed to new submissions, and the winners have been chosen. We're in the process of contacting the winners, and we'll be posting the winning essays in the near future. A total of $15,000 will be awarded to the 12 top winners, with $3,000 for first place, $2,5oo for second place, $2,000 for third place, $1,000 each for 4th through 10th place, and [...]

Americans Against Gun Violence is please to announce that our 2020 National High School Essay Contest is now open to all U.S. High School Students. A total of $15,000 will be awarded to twelve winners. The deadline for students to enter is April 18, 2020. See below for full contest details and the link to the online entry form.   Essay Topic To enter the 2020 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest, [...]

The prompt for the 2019 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest was the following excerpt from the majority opinion written by the late Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun in the 1980 case of Lewis v. United States: The Second Amendment guarantees no right to keep and bear a firearm that does not have "some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia." The contest was open to all high [...]

Announcing the Winners of the 2018 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest The prompt for the 2018 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest was the following statement made by the late Senator Thomas Dodd of Connecticut in a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate on June 11, 1968: The time has now come that we must adopt stringent gun control legislation comparable to the legislation in force [...]