The prompt for this year’s contest was an excerpt from the keynote address that Dr. Michael North delivered at our 2023 annual dinner. Dr. North lost his five-year-old daughter, Sophie, in the mass shooting at the elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, in 1996, in which Sophie’s teacher and 15 other classmates were also killed. Britain already had a ban on automatic and semi-automatic rifles at the time of the Dunblane shooting, but the shooter, Thomas Hamilton, used a handgun that he legally owned to commit the massacre. Following the Dunblane Primary School mass shooting, Dr. North helped lead the successful campaign to completely ban civilian handgun ownership in Britain within two years. There hasn’t been another school shooting in Britain since the ban went into effect. In his keynote address in 2023, Dr. North stated that when he and other grieving Dunblane parents were discussing what they should do to prevent another school shooting like the one in which their children were murdered:

The thought of having armed guards and “lockdown drills” never crossed our minds.

To enter our 2026 essay contest, students were required to submit an original essay of 500 words or fewer* describing their thoughts about the above excerpt from Dr. North’s keynote address.

We received almost 1,300 entries from high school students across the country in this year’s contest. The top essays were chosen by a panel of Americans Against Gun Violence members who read and rated essays blinded to any student identifying information. Dr. North himself chose the first, second, and third place winners from among the top 12 essays identified by our own readers.

While we are pleased to announce the winners of this year’s essay contest, we remain deeply troubled by the fact there continues to be a need for high school students to think and write about the epidemic of gun violence that disproportionately affects our nation’s children and youth. We believe that those of us in older generations should have stopped this epidemic long ago.

It is also with a mixture of appreciation on the one hand and distress on the other that we note that the high school students chosen as winners in this year’s essay contest demonstrate a far greater understanding than the majority of the American public, most elected officials, and even the current majority of Supreme Court justices concerning the definitive measures needed to not only prevent school shootings, but to stop the rest of our country’s shameful epidemic of gun violence.

In most past years, approximately half of our essay contest winners have chosen not to have their names published along with their essays. We don’t fault the students who choose not to have their names published. Rather, we fault the toxic culture in our country that makes students not only fear for their lives every day they go to school, but that makes them fear retaliation if they openly express their views about our country’s shameful epidemic of gun violence. This toxic culture has gotten markedly worse since Donald Trump began his second term as President in January of 2025, and we feared that an even higher percentage of essay contest winners would choose not to have their names published with their essays this year. We are both surprised and inspired, though, by the fact that this year, the vast majority of our winners (83%) have chosen to have their names published with their essays. While we don’t know for sure what the reason is for this dramatic turnaround, we suspect that it may be due in large part to students feeling emboldened by the example set by Dr. North and his British colleagues. We believe that we should all feel emboldened by Dr. North and his colleagues to not only openly discuss the definitive measures needed to prevent school shootings and other forms of gun violence, but to demand that our government adopt stringent gun control laws comparable to the laws in Great Britain.

In the 2026 essay contest instructions, we announced that we would be awarding a total of at least $15,000 in scholarships to twelve winners, with the option of providing additional awards, as we’ve done in most past years, if we received more than 12 outstanding essays. Again this year our readers felt there were definitely more than 12 outstanding essays, and we are awarding a total of $25,000 in scholarships in our 2026 contest divided among 31 winners.

This year’s scholarship awards bring the total sum that we’ve given students in the eight year history of our essay contest to over $157,000.  Donations to support our annual high school essay contest are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by state and federal laws, and 100% of donations to the essay contest fund go directly to student awards.

Here are the top winners in our 2026 National High School Essay Contest.

First Place Winner

$3,000 Award

Willow Yoo

 Bergen County Academies, Hackensack, New Jersey

 Thoughts and Prayers Don’t Stop Bullets

…Our country has accepted, as routine, a level of gun violence the rest of the world rightly considers unconscionable. The simple difference between Britain and the United States is that the British chose to adopt stringent gun control laws that would prevent school shootings, whereas the US has chosen to leave lax gun control laws in place and drill our children and teachers to prepare for the next shooting….[Read the full essay]

 

Second Place Winner

$2,500 Award

(Student’s Name and High School Withheld at Student’s Request)

Beyond Cowering Under Desks and Hiding in Corners

…While America has responded to school shootings by turning schools into military zones, Great Britain eliminated the threat by banning civilian handguns. Lockdown drills place the physical and psychological burden of learning to avoid getting killed in a school shooting on the children themselves: a gross social contract violation….[Read the full essay]

 

Third Place Winner

$2,000 Award

Hassan Zaanoun

Monroe Township High School, Monroe, New Jersey

I Keep Thinking About You, Sophie

…Your father said the thought of armed guards and lockdown drills never even crossed his mind, Sophie. It has never left mine. I’ve been doing this since kindergarten. It just follows me. Everywhere. We even have a word for it now: normal. I think that’s what gets me most. Not the drills themselves. Just that word….[Read the full essay]

 

$1,000 Award Winner

Zachary DelPrato

Penncrest High School, Media, Pennsylvania

Ripping Off the Band-Aid

…Armed guards and lockdown drills are measures that we, as Americans, have taken for granted because the alternative (a complete ban on large classes of firearms) seems impossible. Ultimately, our country’s minimalist strategies are band-aids on bullet wounds, not effective solutions….[Read the full essay]

 

$1,000 Award Winner

Emily Quintanna

Kashmere High School, Houston, Texas

Never Again…Right?

…Dr. North said that when he and the other Dunblane parents were trying to decide what they should do to prevent another school shooting like the Dunblane massacre, “The idea of having armed guards and ‘lockdown drills’ never crossed our minds.” When I read those words, I felt ashamed of our own country….Because right now, it feels like we say “never again” after every shooting,but we don’t act like we really mean it. [Read the full essay]

 

$1,000 Award Winner

Isabella Burns

Amador Valley High School, Pleasanton, California

Britain Chose Children Over Guns. Why Can’t We?

…Britain’s response to Dunblane demonstrates what genuine prioritization of child safety looks like….Compare this to America’s response to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where twenty first-graders and six female staff members were slaughtered in 2012. We implemented precisely nothing at the federal level. Instead, we adopted lockdown drills, armed guards, and “bullet proof” backpacks….[Read the full essay]

 

$1,000 Award Winner

Oliver Chu

East Grand Rapids High School, East Grand Rapids, Michigan

Plan A: The All-American Lockdown Drill

…

In response [to the Dunblane Primary School mass shooting], thanks largely to the campaigning by Dr. North and other Dunblane parents, the British government completely banned civilian handgun ownership within two years. Rates of gun violence in Britain have subsequently been among the lowest in the world, and there have been no further school shootings. This raises the question: is it better to: A) have a well-rehearsed plan for the possibility of a gunman coming into a school; or B) ban the guns used in school shootings?…[Read the full essay]

 

$1,000 Award Winner

Revant Palivela

West Windsor Plainsboro High School North, Princeton Junction, New Jersey

A Phrase He Never Needed to Know

If Dr. Michael North visited my school, someone would have to sit him down and explain a phrase he has never needed to know. Lockdown drills….His country decided the phrase “lockdown drills” was unnecessary before anyone ever had to learn it….The United States of America went the other direction. After every shooting, the laws stay largely unchanged while the vocabulary keeps expanding – “shelter-in-place,” “run-hide-fight,” “trauma kit” – phrases that now get taught to younger kids every year…[Read the full essay]

 

$1,000 Award Winner

Shayla Marshall

Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua, New York

Life, Liberty…and Lockdowns?

“Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” is the phrase I see each morning when I walk into my school building, the words etched above each classroom door. For more than two centuries, these words have been a pledge and foundational belief of our country. Yet those promises have felt hollow as I’ve huddled in corners with my classmates, holding my breath and trembling as we wondered if the lockdown wasn’t just a drill this time….[Read the full essay]

 

 

$1,000 Award Winner

Kainoa Ilac

Pioneer Valley High School, Santa Maria, California

I Didn’t Think, I Just Ran

The shriek of whistles cut through the lunch time recess, instantly silencing the basketballs bouncing on the blacktop. Teachers appeared in every doorway, their faces tight as they ushered us inside with frantic, hushed commands. I didn’t think, I just ran. The nearest door to me belonged to a first-grade classroom. I burst through, my fifth-grade legs feeling clumsy among tiny chairs and colorful alphabet posters. This was not a drill….[Read the full essay]

 

$1,000 Award Winner

Adriana Ramirez

R.L. Turner High School, Carrollton, Texas

We Owe It to Our Children to Do Better

…Hearing Dr. North talk about the United States makes his message even more heartbreaking. He says he watches American school shootings “in horror,” hoping each time that maybe this will be the moment the country decides to act. Instead, he sees kids practicing lockdown drills and growing up with fear as a normal part of school. He can’t understand why children have to live like that – and honestly, neither can I….[Read the full essay]

 

$1,000 Award Winner

Amelia Inglis

Attending a High School in Pennsylvania

 A Government with a Gun to Its Head

When a tragedy like a school shooting occurs, who bears the responsibility of ensuring it cannot happen again? According to the United States government, the answer is overworked, underpaid teachers and literal children, most too young to vote on their own behalf or serve in the military….Upon reading Dr. North’s address at the 2023 Americans Against Gun Violence Dinner and learning that British advocates succeeded in passing a complete ban on handguns only two years after the Dunblane Primary School massacre, I was struck with a crushing feeling of betrayal….[Read the full essay]

 

$1,000 Award Winner

Francisco Miranda

Sunnyside High School North, Tucson, Arizona

We Must Love Our Children More Than We Love Our Guns

….It will be my generation that can make a real change. We need to have a common goal, we need to stay consistent, and we need to be willing to fight for an actual change to the way society views handguns.  The data in Great Britain show that fewer guns has led to less gun violence.  The common message that will lead us to change is that our love for our children has to be stronger than our love of guns.

 

$1,000 Award Winner

Jean Yang

Charlotte Latin School, Charlotte, North Carolina

The Cost of Preparedness

…After the 1996 Dunblane Primary School tragedy, Britain confronted a truth: access determines outcome. Within two years, civilian handgun ownership was effectively eliminated. The goal was reduction of risk and future capacity for repetition. Importantly, there was no implementation of armed teachers or drills. The aim was to prevent the weapon from entering the equation instead of training children to endure its consequences….

 

$250 Award Winner

Keene Kellerhouse

Shaker High School, Latham, New York

 My Generation Must Make A Choice

…The youth of my generation will soon be able to vote, run for office themselves, and become the people who decide whether to continue the present course or to follow the examples of Britain and other high-income democracies. We must decide to do more than just manage the threat of school shootings and other forms of gun violence. We must do everything within our power to eliminate the threat altogether….[Read the full essay]

 

*Essay contest winners were allowed to edit their essays, including making edits that exceeded the original 500 word limit, between the time they were chosen as winners and the time the essays were published on our website in order to expand on the themes in their original essays and/or provide additional documentation. Published essays, therefore, may exceed 500 words in length.