To enter the 2025 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest, students were asked to submit an original essay of 500 words or fewer describing their thoughts about the following excerpt from the late Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas’s opinion in the 1972 case of Adams v. Williams:

A powerful lobby dins into the ears of our citizenry that these gun purchases are constitutional rights protected by the Second Amendment, which reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

There is under our decisions no reason why stiff state laws governing the purchase and possession of pistols may not be enacted….There is no reason why all pistols should not be barred to everyone except the police.

We received approximately 600 entries in this year’s contest, and we’re currently in the process of choosing the winners. We’ll be awarding at least $15,000 in scholarships again this year, distributed among 12 contest winners, with the option of giving additional awards, as we’ve done in most past years, if we find that there are more than 12 outstanding essays. Please return to this page in early June to read the essays of this year’s winners, and use the links on the sidebar to the left to read the winning essays in past years.